Reset (Torchwood)
by nerras
Summary: Lucy used to be a normal college student until an adventure on an alien ship outfitted her with technology beyond anything on Earth. Now, she's been thrown into the mysterious Torchwood team, head first. How will she fit into this world that doesn't even know aliens exist?
1. Chapter 1

It was a boring evening in the Torchwood Hub. There had been no spikes in rift activity, no aliens sitings, no Weevil attacks, not even sneeze of anything resembled anything occult or alien.

Ianto had taken to sitting in the tourist office. He was waiting for everyone to leave so he could sneak down to Jack's office.

Toshiko was tapping away at her computer, trying to improve her algorithms for analyzing Rift activity. For Toshiko, her work was never done. Everything had to be perfect and everything could always be improved, especially computer algorithms.

Gwen was filling out her paperwork for their latest coverup story, a device had come through the Rift causing people to spontaneously break out in dance. That had been a fun one to fix and easy to make a cover story for. Flash mobs were all the rage nowadays.

As for Owen, he was playing solitaire at his desk. There had been nothing for him to do lately. Not since he had finished his initial screening for their mysterious patient that had come in. Jack wouldn't give him any details at all as for how she got here. He recalled the heated conversation that they had had a week and a half earlier...

_"This isn't a bloody hospital Jack!" Owen had said when Jack insisted they put the girl in one of their seldom used care rooms. "Who is this mysterious Doctor friend of yours anyway? Can't be a very good Doctor if he's passing his patients onto me." Owen paused for a second and thought about what he said "No wait, I must be a bloody brilliant doctor if my reputation is bringing in your friends from the Rift."_

_"She's not from the Rift. The Doctor is an old friend of mine and I'm doing this as a favor. Now run your tests on her. I want to know everything we can before she wakes up. We don't know what that device is on her back and if it's dangerous. The only thing we are certain of is that it's alien." _

_Jack really wished he had been the first one to discover the blood stained note in her hand. It was a hastily scrawled message that said,_

_'Jack, please look after her until I get back. Sincerely, The Doctor'_

_Fat lot of help that had been. He hadn't even given us her name. If he had been the first to find it, he could've avoided a lot of awkward question from his team, a lot of questions that he didn't have answers to._

Owen scanned the report that Tosh had given him from the finger print results. Her name was Lucy Schwart, American born, college student, 22 years old. From what he could gather, nothing out of the ordinary. Gwen had gone through all the personal information she could find. No link to anything alien or occult. Hell, the girl wasn't even religious. Brown hair and eyes. 162.5 centimeters. Her profile was so average, it almost hurt.

What had Lucy been doing a week and a half ago with this Doctor that had gotten some alien device attached to her spine? From what he could gather from the x-rays, it was embedded into the muscle and tissue around her spine with tiny connections into her central nervous system. He was afraid to do too many tests to her until she woke up. She had been a mess when he had found her on the autopsy table. He thought someone had left a dead body for him to exam, she was so beat up. A quick analysis showed she had fallen from a high height and collided with something on the way down. There were numerous bone fractures and breaks. Countless amounts of internal bleeding. By every right, she should have been dead. But there she was, breathing shallowly.

It had become obvious very quickly that her body was self healing at a faster than normal pace. Within three days, all of the breaks looked as though they were a couple of weeks old instead of the few days old that they were. They were healing so quickly that Owen had to rebreak some and reset them, It wouldn't do for her to wake up with a crooked leg.

After a day of her being there, Owen had to put her in an induced coma. He was trying to get data from the device on her back with Tosh when she woke up for the first time. Lucy had started thrashing in screaming. Whether it was out of pain or surprise from not knowing where she was, it was impossible to tell. She was still too injured to be awake, Owen knew, and had torn out most of her stitches with that episode.

A few days ago, he stopped giving her the medication to sedate her, deeming her healed from the worst of her injuries, which by all rights was completely unheard of. At worst, now Lucy had a few sprains. He had already removed all her stitches. All that was left was some slight bruising. She was a medical miracle.

Now he played the waiting game with her. She should be waking up any time now and he wanted to be here when she did. There was always someone in the Hub these days, watching the cameras, waiting for her to wake up. They had put her in restraints after the majority of her fractures had healed. Jack had voiced his worry about the device being a weapon and not wanting her to panic and use it when she woke up. The rest of the team agreed, although of course Gwen had fought it a bit at first with her "It's not right, she hasn't done anything wrong" debate. Jack quickly shut her up about that saying then she could be the first one in the room when she woke up, hope Rhys wouldn't miss her if Lucy overreacted to being in a strange place after being on the brink of death.

Jack came up behind Owen "Nothing new?"

Owen switched over to the camera monitoring the care room. "Nothing. No, wait." Owen switched over to his remote monitoring system that he used to track her vitals. "Her heart rate has picked up. It seems our mysterious patient has awoken."

It was strange how time passed in the darkness. The shape and colors I saw betrayed no passing of time, Sometimes the shapes and colors formed into something concrete that I could recognize. Most of the time, they turned into the Doctor. I was running down an endless amount of halls with him.

The halls would never end. All we had to do was get back to his TARDIS, then we could go home. One time, the Doctor had disappeared and I ended up on an operating table with two people standing over me. They looked human, but I didn't recognize them. I fought them, they were trying to something to my back. They couldn't touch it, I wouldn't let them. If they did, then they'd _know._ Know that I wasn't normal. I just wanted to go home. After that, the darkness quickly came back.

The shapes and color appeared. Ever swirling. It was like they were trying to comfort me.

They formed the Doctor's face, "Lucy, it's time to wake up," he said in his British accent.

"I don't want to, I'm so tired Doctor." I was so warm. I just wanted to stay here forever. The colors and shapes wouldn't hurt me.

"Lucy, it's time to wake up," he said again, "everyone is waiting for you."

I sighed and reluctantly struggled to pull myself out of the place I was in. It wasn't easy, I just wanted to float back down.

Suddenly there was darkness. _Not again, I want my shapes back_. It took me a second to realize that it was dark because my eyes were closed. I tried to move my arm to wipe the sleep out of my eyes, but found that I couldn't. I immediately started to panic. _Oh no, I didn't get off the ship. The Doctor didn't come back for me. I'm back on the operating table_. Then I realized that the restraints holding me down were made out of some kind of acrylic material, not the vines of the operating table the Lorian had me on.

I looked around with some difficulty. My whole body felt very stiff, like I had been laying here for a while. The room appeared to be some kind of care room. It was set up like a hospital room, but instead of being white with tile everywhere, the walls were painted a warm brown color, there was carpet on the floor.

I tried with immense difficulty to remember what happened. I was on the Lorian ship with a man called the Doctor. _Why had the Lorian been operating on me? _Oh no, that's right... the device on my back. I fell. _So how am I still alive?_ _How did I get here? Is this where the Doctor lives?_

Just then, a man came into the room. "Stay out there and don't come in until I say. Yes Owen, I know you want to check on your patient, but I need to talk to her first." He closed the door behind him and strode over to the bed where I laid. There was a frown on his face as he looked down at me. We stared at each other for a solid minute. He was definitely very handsome. The classic kind of handsome, not model on a billboard handsome. His attire was as timeless as his face; suspenders and dark khakis with a collared blue shirt.

I tried to say something, but it came out as a croak. My throat felt like a desert. The man took something off the table next to and held it up to my lips. I sipped at it gently, not taking my eyes off him. I coughed after the first sip. The water burned my raw throat. The second and third sip felt a lot better. I quickly finished the cup, still not taking my eyes off him. My memory was still a little shaky, but he was definitely not the Doctor.

"Who are you?" I finally managed to get out.

"I could ask you the same thing, only, we already know all there is to know about you except how you came to be here. Lucy Schwart, college student, graduated number 28th in her high school class, 5'4", 140 lbs, 22 years old, enjoys sewing and knitting. When my vortex manipulator started beeping, I thought it was the Doctor I would find back at the Hub, not some broken girl lying on our autopsy table. So care to tell me how you got here? I'd rather hear before the rest of my team does. Although they're used to dealing with aliens, there are some things I don't think they're ready to deal with yet. I'm Cap'n Jack Harkness by the way."

I regaled as much as I could to Captain Jack. I was in no position to argue. I just wanted help, and to get this thing off of me. Occasionally I had to back up when I would remember parts. Things came back to me as I talked. A few times, I had to stop and pause, collect myself as I tried not to cry. My memory became fuzzy towards the end. I remembered jumping and falling, but not really anything that came afterwards or why I fell in the first place. "So where is the Doctor?" I asked when I finally finished."

"Good question." Captain Jack had sat down on a stool while I was talking. He got up now. "I'm going to call Owen in so he can poke and prod you some more as we work out what to do about that thing on your back. I'm going to go brief them for a few minutes before I let everyone in, so they know what's going on."

"Wait, can you at least take these straps off me?" I asked. I could feel the soreness and rawness of my wrists and ankles as I had been talking.

"Sorry, not yet. Let Owen examine first and then we'll talk."

I sighed, wondering what was going to happen to me. Who were these people? Was I in some secret bunker under Area 51? With the way things had been going, I wouldn't be surprised. How long would they keep me here? Was I going to be locked up and experimented on forever?

After a few minutes, a thin faced man walked into the room holding a chart. He was wearing a white lab coat. His professional image was ruined with the buttons attached to the collar of his lab coat, his jeans and t-shirt underneath. "Dr. Owen Harper. No need to introduce yourself, we all already know who you are. It's nice to see you awake. We've all been wondering how you got here through all our security."

Owen sounded very snide and full of himself. I didn't really care, he was apparently the one who kept me alive apparently, so I better be at least a bit thankful. "Are you the one that patched me up when the Doctor left me here?" I said it a bit bitterly. It was true, he had left me here, _abandoned me_.

"Patched up is a bit of an understatement. You were utterly broken when we found you. The rate at which you healed is incredible," he flipped through some papers on his clipboard, "no it's more than that, it's impossible. I've never seen anything like it, and that's saying something," he thought for a second "Well maybe besides Jack, but he's a whole other story. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the device attached to your back that's causing this." He flipped through some more charts and pulled out some X-RAYs, MRI's and other scans that I didn't recognize. He hung them up on the wall to my left. I craned my head to look at them.

"Jack's report seems to line up with my findings. However, one thing is puzzling me. I haven't told the others yet, except for Jack of course. He is the boss man," Owen rolled his eyes, "Your DNA seems to be changed a bit. It doesn't match anything in our systems and the rate at which it's changed seems to have slowed down. In fact, the rate at which your DNA changing has slowed down in correlation with the rate at which you healed yourself. You were healing much faster when you first arrived. Almost like your body was in a hurry to heal itself, although that's no surprise considering without the healing you probably would've died."

"So what does that mean? Am I no longer human or something? Are you going to dissect me now to figure out what this thing is?"

"Actually, it would be a vivisection since you're still alive, and no, we are not going to cut you up to figure out what it is. We were hoping you could tell us what it was. Jack mentioned something about it giving you superpowers? As for the DNA part, we're not exactly sure what it means yet." He smiled.

"Well I mean, i jumped across a huge opening, but I don't know how it works. I didn't exactly get a chance to try it out." _If my DNA had changed, was I no longer human? Was I turning into an alien species?_

"No, I suppose you wouldn't have. Oh, one more thing I forgot to ask, when you fell, did you land on your back? The tests seem to confirm that, but I just wanted to make sure." Owen had walked over to the wall with the X-rays again.

I thought for a second. "I think so. I hit a railing on the way down, which kind of spun me a bit."

"Ok. I don't know how the thing on your back looked when it was first put on, but Tosh reckons that part of it broke when you fell. I'm going to draw some blood now."

"Tosh?" I asked while squeezing my eyes shut. _I hate needles_. Owen seemed to notice my discomfort. I swore I could hear him smirk.

"Toshiko Sato, another member of the team. I'm sure you'll be meeting her and the others soon enough." He put another vial on the end of the tube.

"How many of you are there?"

"Me, Jack, Tosh, Ianto and Gwen. Now, I'm going to take these to my lab to run some tests." He got up and started to leave.

"Wait, who are you guys? Are you the CIA or something?" I called out.

"No, we're Torchwood." And with that, he closed the door behind him.

I fell asleep again shortly after Owen left. I was still exhausted and sore all over. Plus, being strapped to a bed with nothing to do was absolutely boring. On a scale of sitting in the DMV to going to an amusement park, it was below the DMV, which is saying something.

There were no dreams, just the familiar darkness.

I awoke later to the door being sharply closed. Captain Jack was back in the room along with Owen and an oriental woman who I had yet to meet. She was very pretty I decided. She had shoulder length black hair and wore glasses. "I'm Toshiko Sato," she said in a quiet voice. She stood back, like she was afraid of me.

"I won't bite," I said with a smile, trying to diffuse the obvious tension in the air.

"You almost did. Knocked Tosh's glasses clear off her face the first day you were here." Owen commented.

"What?" I asked. I didn't remember anything after I arrived here. I just assumed I had been in a comatose state the entire time I had been here.

"Yeah, you woke up when we were trying to look at your back. You started screaming and thrashing. We weren't quite sure what was going to happen when you woke up, hence the uh-" he nodded towards the restraints."

"But Owen has deemed you safe enough to take them off. Be warned, we are all armed, so if you've been hiding something or attack any of us, we will shoot without second thought," Jack was very serious. I didn't doubt he'd shoot me without second thought. I glanced at the holster attached to his belt.

According to Captain Jack, I had been out for a little over a week and a half. Despite my supposed amazing healing abilities, it took me a couple days to get both my mental and physical stamina back. My whole body was ridiculously stiff. It felt like I had been lying in a coffin for more than a century. The first time I swung my legs over the bed to walk around, they collapsed under me. Jack caught me, i felt like a child taking its first steps.

My first few days with the Torchwood team were filled with tests, tests and more tests. If it existed in my body or was suspected to, Owen tested for it. I spent some time with Toshiko as well while she tried to mapped the device on my back and determine its functionality.

It was decided that we would wait a couple days for me to recoup until doing more practical tests, as Owen put it. I was more than willing to comply, I was afraid of what the results would be or what I would become, I didn't want to lose control again.

My second day started and ended with me on a treadmill. Despite the fact that I was still fatigued, Owen wanted to test my stamina. "Just curious" he said. Soon, an hour on the treadmill turned into two. At the mark of the third hour, when it was obvious I wouldn't be slowing down anytime soon, and after a lot of begging, Owen set up a movie for me in front of the treadmill to keep me from getting bored to death. At a steady pace, I didn't start feeling tired until the fifth hour. Members of the team popped in and out all day and I got the chance to learn more about Torchwood.

My final time for the treadmill was eight hours and seventeen minutes. I could've gone longer, but Owen was afraid of me developing stress fractures. He told me that at full health, he wouldn't be surprised if I could run indefinitely.

Privacy was an illusion in the Hub. I was informed that I was under constant surveillance and to not try anything funny. I slept in the care room at night with the door locked from the outside. Sunlight was suddenly becoming a fantasy, the Hub had no windows.

"Alright Lucy, today we start our practical tests. This morning I mainly just want to see what you can do or what you think you can do. Afterwards, I've designed another lovely sheet for you to fill out."

"I thought being out of school would mean I had less assignments to do, not more," I sighed.

"Trust me sweetheart, you'll never get away from it," Gwen chimed in. She sat at her desk, filling out paperwork again. The team had been call out last to "unusual activity" just outside of Cardiff. They wouldn't tell me much more besides that. _Who was I going to tell anyway? _

Jack had cut me off from all communication to the outside world. Apparently two days after my "adventure" with the Doctor, I had been declared missing. I could only imagine how my parents were reacting. My mom would be the worst. She could barely handle me being away at college, I could only imagine what was going through her mind now.

Owen steered me down a labyrinth of halls. I heard Gwen behind me, "Oh come on Jack, this paperwork isn't going anywhere, we just want to watch." It looked like the whole team would be watching me today. _Joy._ I just prayed nothing would go wrong. I could already feel my palms sweating.

Owen seemed to notice my nervousness. He and I had grown to be able to read each other quite well over the past few days. "Don't worry. Just do what you think you can. This thing is hooked into your central nervous system, which means _you're_ in control of it." I hadn't mentioned the psychic controls to any of them yet, and I didn't know if Owen or Toshiko had picked it up in any of their tests yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Tosh had, she seemed to be able to map out anything. If she had noticed it, it seemed she hadn't said anything to Owen yet.

Gwen, Ianto, Toshiko and Captain Jack caught up with us. Gwen smiled encouragingly at me. I smiled back, but it felt more like a grimace. Why did it feel like they were taking me to the gallows? _Probably because it something bad happens, it will be the gallows, or at least Jack's gun._

The room we ended up in was a long room that reminded me of a shooting range. My suspicions were quickly confirmed. "I cleared out all the dummies so you have plenty of room to do whatever it is you're going to do. Now listen team, I want you to stay against this back wall while Lucy does her thing. If I say get out, do not question me. Yes that includes you Owen," Jack added when Owen started to protest, "Here Lucy, wear this so we don't have to shout across the room at you." Captain Jack handed me one of their ear pieces. "Now just relax and see what you can do." He gestured at me to move to the other end of the room.

I felt embarrassed. I had no idea where to start. I walked to the other end of the room, my face burning red. This shouldn't be happening. I should be in class right now. When was I going to wake up from this nightmare? I took a deep breath as I heard Captain Jack talk in my ear. "Can you hear me? Good. Now just remember, relax. We're all here if anything goes wrong." I honestly didn't know where to start. I voiced this to Jack. "You said you jumped some large distance back on the alien ship? Why don't you start with that?"

I nodded, he probably couldn't see it from all the way down there though. I crouched down and took another deep breath. _Relax Lucy, you didn't do anything special for the treadmill the other day, just try to jump like it's natural for you._ So I tried that. I aimed for the middle of the room, much farther than an ordinary person would be able to jump. I didn't bother with a running start. If my memory served correctly, I didn't need one for the ship. I leapt.


	2. A Tale of Two Weevils

I landed in the middle of the floor, my horizontal momentum caused me to slide and stumble forwards a few extra steps. I looked up and smiled. The rest of the team was staring in disbelief, all except for Captain Jack, he was smiling. He clapped a few times as he spoke to me in my ear piece.

"Impressive, now what else can you do?"

"Not sure to be honest. This was the only thing I had a chance to try out before..." I trailed off and leapt around the room a few more times. I felt so free. I could only imagine how this would feel to do in an open field.

i looked back over to the group, they were all smiling and talking amongst themselves. Toshiko was talking to Jack. She had a serious look on her face. It was a face I had seen a few times over the past few days. That face meant Toshiko had an idea or was close to some kind of breakthough. It was a mix of excitement and wholehearted interest. Jack nodded to her once before speaking to me again in my earpiece.

"Toshiko had an idea to try out. It would perhaps clue us into a bit more of these special abilities of yours."

"Alright, I'm willing to try almost anything to solve this." I jumped across the length of the room, I could definitely get used to this.

Toshiko led us back up to her workstation in the main room of the Hub. She brought up a 3D model of the metal piece on my back as well as multiple photographs and some of the x-rays that Owen took. I studied the photographs. This was the first time I was able to really get a good look at the stanchion. It had the hue of aluminum metal [although it was flexible, the metal obviously wasn't anywhere near as fragile as aluminum]. It had ridges and bumps along it, mimicking the vertebrae underneath. The most curious part of the piece of it was the colored semi-ovals on each of the vertebrae. They had the look of stained glass. Each semi-oval was a different color. I could tell where Toshiko had thought some of the bits had broken. The metal was dented and the glass looking pieces were broken, cracked or non-existant. Upon closer inspection of the photo, it appeared each of the glass parts contained bits of liquid.

Toshiko took out a pen and started pointing at one of the photos. "Owen has told me last week that he scraped some residue out of the broken parts of the vertebrae divots. Although his results are still inconclusive for the moment, he believes that it is some kind of spinal fluid mixed with an alien compound. Each of these divots seems to connect to part of the central nervous system. My theory is that each of these connections controls a different ability. Since the brain is controlled by electrical pulses, I thought that maybe we could externally, or if that didn't work, internally send a small electrical pulse to the divot directly. This may trigger a response similar to a muscle reflex."

"Like when you tap your knee with a hammer and it causes your leg to kick?" Gwen asked.

"Exactly," Toshiko responded, smiling. It did seem like a good idea, I had to admit. But what if some of these abilities were less than friendly to people in vicinity of me? Jack seemed to read my mind.

"So what happens if she can shoot lasers out of her eyes or something? What if someone is standing in front of her when this happens and next thing they know, they have a hole through their stomach? Or what if something makes her go critical and set off a nuclear blast?"

"Better we find out i a controlled environment than for you to see a news story about me in a year or two about a girl spontaneously combusting," I chimed in, "I like Toshiko's idea."

"Well I don't. It's too dangerous, it could put everyone in Cardiff in danger, but I do agree that we need to contain any threat before we release you to the public." Jack crossed his arms, as if challenging me.

"Well I don't think they would've given me any kind of power that would destroy everything in the immediate vicinity. They said I'd be protecting the Lorians, not conquering civilizations. I'm not a war machine, I'm a body guard," I smiled, my argument was a good one.

"I don't want to take any chances." Captain Jack held firm, his arms crossed, looking down at me.

"You know, you could always do it Jack, be the only one in the room with her," suggested Gwen. Jack cast her a sideways glance and looked back at me. _What was the difference if Jack was the only one in the room?_

Captain Jack thought on this for a minute, his eyebrows furrowed together. It was a tough choice for him. He didn't tread lightly into the unknown when his team's lives could be on the line. "Alright, but I don't want to do it in the Hub. Ianto, see if you can find us a relatively empty warehouse on the docks. Preferably not near any other active warehouses. Toshiko, prepare what you think we'll need for the test. You and Owen will come with me, but stay _outside_ the warehouse. I don't want to take any more chances than I have to. Gwen and Ianto, I want you here, monitoring for any unusual activity. Be ready too, you know just in case we need backup. Owen, do me a favor and grab some cameras. Since I'll be the only one in the warehouse with Lucy, I want to record this so we don't miss anything. And you," Jack put his hand on my shoulder, "go with Gwen for a bit and find some more suitable clothing."

I had been in a set of white scrubs since I got here. I just assumed the clothing I had been wearing when the Doctor brought me here was too bloodied up. It would be nice to go outside for a change. It had been beginning to feel like I'd never see the sunlight again.

Gwen took me down some hallways and into a storage room. "You looked like you were having fun today in the shooting range. I think that's the first time I've seen you smile since you got here," Gwen smiled. She definitely was the most personable person on the team.

"Yeah, it felt so great to be moving around like that. Like stretching after you've been sitting at a desk all day."

Gwen laughed, "I definitely know that feeling, although there are days where I'm doing more running than sitting. Sometimes I think I'd rather be sitting behind a desk all day."

"Does the job really get that dangerous?" So far, the team hadn't seemed to have much alien activity. The way they seemed to describe it, I thought I'd be seeing them bring in aliens and strange technology every other day.

"Oh yeah," she chuckled, "The rift has been quiet lately. In fact, I think this is the quietest it's been in a while. It's almost like something's backed it up and it's going to belch out something huge soon." I giggled, but Gwen wasn't laughing. She just had a look in her eye like she was staring somewhere far away. "Anyway, let's find you something that make's you look a bit less like a patient escaped from a psych ward."

Gwen pulled out a few boxes filled with clothing. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a hoodie, "I know they may not be the latest fashion, but they should do for now." I was afraid to ask where the clothing came from, Torchwood seemed to be a police like organization. I went to the corner of the room and put the clothes of. The jeans were a little snug, but would be fine for the day. The hoodie smelled of woman's shampoo. Gwen handed me a pair of tennis shoes, they also fit. "Jack said he's having Owen pull the SUV by the city center entrance. I think he wants to show off the scenic route to you," she smiled.

We went back to the main office area of the Hub where Jack was standing. "Owen and Tosh will meet us up above. You're going to like this part," he waved me over to what looked like a concrete slab on the floor. We stepped up on it, "You might want to hold on."

"To what?" I barely had a chance to finish asking before the slab started moving upwards towards the high ceiling. I instinctively grabbed onto Jack's arm, he smiled. "I take it this is what Gwen meant when she said the scenic route?" We were quickly ascending. It vaguely reminded me of when the Doctor and I had been beamed up into the alien ship, I just hoped that wasn't a bad premonition. A square exactly the size of the one we were standing on was now open in the ceiling. Gwen waved to us from below.

When we got to the top, we were standing in the center of a very large city square. Behind us was a tall metal tower. I looked around. It seemed like no one saw us. "Perception filter. No one can see us so long as we're standing here. Comes in handy when we come up this way," Jack explained before I even had a chance to ask, "Now let's go meet Owen and Tosh."

Despite being cloudy, I revelled in the fresh air. I hadn't realized how stale the air in the Hub had felt. I felt like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time,

No cars were allowed in the city center, so we had to walk to one of the streets. I looked around at everything I could. There was the sea and a lot of restaurants. "This may be a silly question, but where are we? Judging by everyone's accent it seems like we're somewhere in England"

"Cardiff, Whales to be exact. I can't believe no one told you yet. Is this your first time overseas?" I nodded. It had always been a fantasy of mine to travel to Europe. Specifically Ireland or Scotland, the lore of the places seemed to draw me. It was silly, but I always wanted to meet fairies. The thought of magic intrigued me. After all I had been to, I began to wonder if the old tales about the fae could have been inspired by our ancestors meeting with aliens. Had I not been familiar with technology, I could see how some of the things we possessed could be magical.

I didn't have too much time to ponder on this as we reached the SUV. I climbed into the back with Jack. I had forgotten that the British had the steering wheel on the other side of the car. Tosh was sitting up front with Owen.

"I'm assuming Ianto found a suitable location?" Jack asked.

"Yup, thirty minutes from city center on an abandoned dock. There are a few abandoned warehouses to choose from Ianto told us, so we can pretty much pick whichever we want. He said be careful though because there might be a few in disrepair."

"I love that man" Jack smiled.

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the dock. Owen wasn't very good at taking directions while driving. Twice, we had to make a U-turn because he missed where he was supposed to go. We took another 20 minutes scoping out the available warehouses. Toshiko insisted we used one with a completely in tact roof in case it started raining, she didn't want to get the equipment wet.

We finally found a suitable one near the end of the dock. The roof was completely in tact, but time and weather had worn away some holes in the walls. The warehouse was one giant room with catwalks up top. It appeared that there may be a few storage or office rooms built into it, but overall, was mostly one giant space. The entire place smelled like old fish.

Toshiko and Owen set up their equipment in the middle of the room. They brought in tables to hold the monitors and computers. Owen brought in a lot of medical equipment as well as the cameras. They were set up in a circle around the stool that I would be sitting on. It took Jack and Owen both to carry in the generator, the warehouse had no power.

After all the equipment set up, Owen sat me on the stool and briefed me on what was going to happen while Toshiko explained to Jack how to work the equipment. "Jack is going attach these small electrodes to the divots on your back. We're not quite sure how much of a electric pulse it'll take to activate it externally, if it activates at all," he showed me the electrode. It looked like the little pads doctors hooked up to patients to do an EKG. "Regardless, you'll barely feel anything except a little tickle, even at the highest setting. If this doesn't work, we'll move onto the next test." He didn't bother explaining that one yet. I had already guessed since it was an internal test, it would involve needles. _I really do hate needles_. I shivered a little bit

"If anything goes wrong, Jack and you will be hooked up to us right outside with your ear pieces. We'll be monitoring you guys via live feed through those cameras," he clapped me on the shoulder, "relax, I've put you through a lot worse tests these past few days."

That's not what I was worried about. Without me being in control of what was coming out, I was afraid something would come out that hurt Jack. Owen then began hooking me up to a few more machines. "These are just to monitor your vitals, but I'm sure you know that by now."

After everything was set up and explained, Toshiko and Owen walked back to the SUV outside the warehouse. Jack was staring up at one of the catwalks. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, I just thought I saw something up there," he took a deep breath in, "Alright, Tosh, can you hear me? Gwen can you?" Both women answered affirmative over the com system. "Let's get started then."

I pulled my hoodie off. I was still wearing the white top underneath. I pulled that up, exposing my back and the alien device. I could already feel goosebumps forming on my arm, whether that was from the chill in the air or anticipation, I couldn't tell.

"Let's get this show on the road," Jack put the first electrode on the first vertebrae on the left of my back, close to my neck. "Ready?" I nodded, nervous of what the results might be. "Ok, I'm turning it on the lowest setting now." I didn't feel anything change, I shook my head to let Jack know.

"Nothing on my end," Owen spoke into our earpieces.

"Next level," Jack said. Still nothing. I didn't even feel a tingling. "Nothing? Ok, I'm going to move up two more." Yet again, I didn't feel anything. No change at all.

"Jack, you may as well crank that thing up. I don't feel anything." I heard him turn the dial all the way up behind me.

"Ready?" I nodded again. I heard him press the button, but still nothing. No results. "Owen?"

"Nothing Jack, not even any changes in brain waves. I think that thing may be too well insulated. We're going to come back in so we can try the internal." I felt my heart beat pick up the pace. The heart monitor sped up it's beeping correspondingly.

Owen walked into the warehouse without Tosh, carrying another box of equipment. "Tosh is going to stay out in the SUV, she said she thought she saw something moving outside and wants to keep an eye out. Said she didn't want a repeat of the cannibals." I didn't even bother to ask. I wasn't sure it was a story I wanted to hear. "Alright Jack, this one is going to be a little bit more tricky since you don't have medical training," Owen opened his box and took somethings out behind me. I could already feel my hands shaking and getting more sweaty. "Pretty much you're just going to take this here, and shove it between her skin and the device. Try not to wiggle it around to much, I'm sure Lucy won't thank you for that. I'll do the first one for you. On the x-ray, it showed some hooks that keep it attached to her. Try to keep it in between those and get under the device if you can. Alright, I'm going to put the first one in now Lucy, ok?" I nodded, I didn't trust my voice not to crack.

Owen shoved the needle in and bent it a little bit to get under the stanchion, I'll admit, it hurt, a lot. It felt like, well, someone was shoving a needle in my spine. I bit my lower lip, trying not to cry out. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay in here with you to do the other ones?" Owen asked Jack,

"Yes, it's too dangerous. Plus how else am I going to earn my doctor qualifications if I never have hands on practise?" I just shook my head. My back was going to have some interesting bruises in the morning if this test worked. Owen walked back out to the SUV.

"Alright team, let's do this. Ready Lucy?" I nodded my head again and closed my eyes. Jack turned the nob up.

I could immediately tell something was different. I took in a breath sharply as I opened my eyes. Everything was colored and it was hard to tell the outlines of things. I looked at my hands, they were bright red. I craned my head around to Jack, he was bright red as well. It only took me a few seconds to realize what I was seeing was a thermal image of everything. "Jack?" He was smiling at me.

"Not possessed by the devil now are you? Your eyes are bright red. What's going on?"

"I'm seeing the temperature signature of everything," I heard Tosh gasp over the ear piece, "It's so strange. You're bright red and so am I. I can see straight through that wall to Owen and Tosh out in the SUV. Kinda of looks like they're floating," I laughed and looked around the room some more. I saw something strange. "On the floor on the far side of the room, there's a mass of red as well. Right behind that wall where we thought were some offices and storage space." I looked up at the ceiling, "There's two points moving above us as well on the roof. Birds?" I asked.

"I don't see anything flying out here, Owen give me the binoculars," Tosh spoke over the com device.

Jack was already walking over to where I pointed with the heat signature on the floor. He put his arm up to his face, I couldn't tell what he was doing. The probe was still in my back, making it impossible to switch off my thermal vision. He reached the wall and opened what I guessed was a door, very quietly. After peeking inside, he closed it again very quickly. As he was jogging back towards me, he spoke quietly in the ear piece, "No wonder this place is abandoned, it's a Weevil nest, the biggest I've ever seen. The spots Lucy saw on the roof- " Jack kicked something on the floor, it made a very loud clanging sound that seemed to resonate through the whole warehouse. He froze. Suddenly, I saw the heat signature on the ground across the room undulate.

"Lucy?" Jack asked.

"It's moving. I guess this would be a good time to tell you to run." I glanced back over to the SUV and saw two human like figures running towards it. I ripped the probe out of my back, _Ow_, and started running towards the door, hoodie in hand. My vision immediately changed back to normal. "Owen, Tosh, there are two things running towards you!"

I got to the door much sooner than Jack. He was already a lot farther away and my increased physical abilities allowed me to sprint quite fast. I hadn't even thought about jumping. I had no idea what these Weevils were, but they seemed to scare the other team members, so I assumed I didn't want to tangle with them.

As soon as I threw open the door, I saw, what I assumed were Weevils, running towards the warehouse. They stopped between me and the SUV. I saw Owen get out of the SUV with something in his hands, from here, it looked like a hairspray can.

I glanced behind me quickly to see Jack sprinting towards the door with everything he was worth, and for good reason. Pouring out the door behind him were a seemingly endless supply of the two creatures standing in front of me. Owen was shouting at me to run. i didn't want to leave Jack there, but I couldn't do anything for him.

Owen was already moving towards the two Weevils in front of me. They didn't look like creatures he'd be able to take on his own. They were large and bald, wearing jumpsuits. Their faces were flat besides two small, beady eyes set close together. The Weevils barred their teeth at me. They were sharp, definitely not something I'd like to get close to. I leapt at one of the Weevils, aiming my feet directly at its chest.

The Weevil and I went down in a tumble, I would never forget the horrible smell that filled my nostrils. It was something between raw sewage and algae, it was snarling and snapping at my throat. I quickly realized I had severely underestimated these things. I used my forearms to fend it off until I got my knee's under it. I tried launching it off me , but it managed to get it's incisors sunk into my forearm. I screamed just a someone wrenched it off of me.

Owen had pulled the Weevil off me and sprayed at its face. The Weevil immediately recoiled. Whatever was in that can was highly effective at repelling the Weevils. Jack was just coming through the door as Owen hauled me to my feet. One of the Weevils caught the tail of Jack's coat. Judging by the other rips, this was what had delayed him in getting out of the warehouse sooner. He also had claw marks all over his face. He was never going to make it to the SUV and even if he did, we'd be overwhelmed by the sea of Weevils that were now pouring out of the door after Jack.

I thought fast, my summer camp experiences were coming back to me. "Do you have a lighter?" I asked Owen, he was pulling me towards the SUV. He pulled one out of his pocket.

"Why?" But I already had the lighter and the can out of his hands. I doused the hoodie that I had picked back up after dropping it in my tumble with the Weevil. I used the arms to tie the can securely into the hoodie and lit it on fire.

"Duck!" I screamed at Jack as I launched the now flaming hoodie into the pile of Weevils. The hoodie flew over Jack's head. It distracted the Weevils enough for Jack to rip himself away from their snapping mouths. He just cleared the sea of Weevils when the can exploded.

We were all already in the SUV with Toshiko in the driver seat, engine revving. Jack leapt into the back seat and slammed the door shut behind him. A couple Weevils that managed to avoid the blast rammed into the side of the vehicle after Jack, but Toshiko had already started driving away. I looked out the rear window after them,they were still chasing us.

"Was that a can of Weevil spray?" Jack managed to get out, he was breathing heavily.

Owen responded, "Yes it was, you can thank Lucy for that explosion." For some reason, he seemed proud, like it was his experiment that had finally done some good for the group.

"Thanks," Jack said to me. He smiled, still breathing heavily. "Gwen are you there?"

"Yeah Jack, what's going on, we heard you curse and then the line went dead. Ianto's ready to send out the cavalry, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, we stumbled on a Weevil nest, we'll tell you all about it when we get back."

Meanwhile, Owen had been getting somethings out in the mini work station in the back, he grabbed my arm where the Weevil had bit me and injected something in it before I had a chance to protest. "Weevil mouths are nasty things, wouldn't due for you to get an infection from it." he dabbed the puncture wounds with something cool, immediately the throbbing started ebbing away. After wrapping it in gauze he started feeling the back of my head. "That was a bit of a tumble you took with the Weevil, hm? So how did you like your first outing with Torchwood? As exciting as you thought it would be?" He was smiling.

I grimaced as he touched a tender spot on the back of my head. I must have hit it when I fell. "For some reason, I was expecting a few more explosions," I answered back. Owen was moving his finger in front of my eyes, telling me to track it.

"Alright, no concussion. Is everything else in order?" I nodded, "Good, Jack, how're you doing?"

"I'm fine thanks to Lucy. I thought they were going to tear me to bits. I haven't had that much fun in a while," he was smiling as well. It reminded me of the Doctor, they all did. It was like they enjoyed this, the danger, the brushes with death. I thought for a few minutes and took stock of my body, My heart was just starting to calm down, I was scraped and bruised, not to mention the arm where the Weevil had bit me. I did have to admit to myself, it was exciting and more fun than staying home and doing homework.

I sat thinking on the car ride back to the Hub while the rest of the team chatted away and talked logistics. It was hard to believe a few days ago, no weeks [I kept forgetting about the time I lost when I was unconscious], my life had been the same monotonous thing everyday. If you had told me about this side of society, I probably would've laughed and told you to go get a tin foil hat, now it was my reality. I had no idea what to think about it. I was battered and bruised, but at the same time, I could feel excitement burning in my chest. Although I technically wasn't part of Torchwood, it felt nice to be part of _something_.

Another 30 minutes and we were parking outside of the Hub, or so they told me. This was my first time coming back and it wasn't the same entrance Jack had brought me out of. The entrance was down on a little dock and labelled as a tourist information shop. It was hardly noticeable, probably the way Torchwood liked it. By now, the sun was starting to set, causing the water to look dark and ominous, the clouds had yet to clear away and there was a smell of rain in the air.

"I still can't believe we lost all that equipment today," Toshiko complained, "Jack, do you think there will be any way to get it back?"

"I doubt it, the Weevils have probably destroyed it by now. Most of that stuff was just standard medical equipment and computers anyway. I don't think there was any alien tech in there.."

"No, I don't think there was."

We walked through the front of the shop, Ianto was behind the desk, he pressed something. A huge part of the wall rolled away to reveal a dark hallway. Jack motioned for me to go first. It was a long hallway leading to a door at the end. The door opened to reveal an elevator. It took quite some time for the elevator to reach the bottom. Gwen was sitting at her desk when we got to the bottom. "You lot look a mess, get back alright?"

"Yeah, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, meet me in the board room. Lucy, go to the showers and clean up a bit, you smell like Weevil spray. Ianto, could you work some of your coffee magic?"

"Right away, sir. Should I make it extra dark?" Ianto asked.

"You know it," Jack smiled and pointed to Ianto.

The Hub had a shower down in the care rooms, I guessed for longer term patients, which didn't seem to be very often. I grabbed a new set of scrubs from the pile that Owen had provided me in my room. When I got to the shower, I stripped down and discarded my clothing in the corner. I faced my back to the mirror and craned my head around to try to get a look at the metal device.

It would take some getting used to seeing. The thing never failed to startle me. The skin around the edges of the stanchion were red and scarred, I guess alien operations weren't perfect. There were a few bruises blossoming as well on my back, one from where Owen had put and the needle and I had haphazardly ripped it out and a couple more from my tumble with the Weevil. I felt the back of my head where I had banged it, it was tender, but no longer came away sticky with blood when I touched it. Overall, I suppose I had gotten away lightly for someone who wasn't used to dealing with those creatures. By all rights, Jack should've been more beat up than I was, but he seemed unphased by the whole thing.

I took my time in the shower, letting the hot water pour over my sore body. I pondered on everything that had happened today. _So, I have thermal vision, I wonder if I have any other cool abilities like that. Ones that don't hurt people_. I was so afraid of losing control. I deemed myself a pacifist. I had never been in a fight and even hearing verbal arguments made me nervous sometimes. I couldn't imagine me being some kind of body guard, it was hard enough to accept what had happened with the Weevil today.

After getting out of the shower, I made my way back to my room, hair wrapped in a towel. I saw Owen walking down the hallway towards me, he had a smile on his face, "I was just coming to make sure you hadn't passed out in the shower, you were in there a long time."

"More like trying to get a peek at me naked," I answered. In the days I had been here, I learned that Owen had a bit of a reputation as a womanizer. I smiled back at him.

"Nah, we have a strict doctor-patient relationship," he said, a bit overly serious, he seemed to be joking. "Anyway, Jack said he wants to see you in his office when you're done with your shower."

I dropped my clothes and towel back in my room and made my way back up to the central Hub. Jack probably just wanted to go over what happened today. My hair was still wet when I entered his office. Jack motioned for me to have a seat.

"So, I've called you here for a few reasons, the first of which is the one I really want to discuss. I talked it over with the team and they all seem to agree. We want you to join Torchwood."


	3. Torchwood 101

"You guys want me to join Torchwood?" I asked dubiously. _I'm Lucy, I'm not anyone special_. I was a college student, not an agent for a secret organization. _Oh but you are special now_, a voice in the back of my head said, _You're outfitted with alien technology, you've probably had more hands on and direct interaction with aliens than these people here_.

"We need people like you, quick thinkers. I was impressed with how you handled those Weevils today. Not only that, but you have an alien device attached to your back. You're probably the most useful thing to happen to us and you didn't even come through the rift. We're here to protect the world from alien threats, and sometimes that means getting our hands dirty with alien blood. I can't count the number of deaths that could've been avoided and lives saved had you been with us. So what do you say?" Jack leaned towards me.

I had to admit, it was an attractive offer. "Would I be able to see my family again?"

A look of sadness crossed his face, "No, Lucy Schwart would have to disappear. That device on your back is too dangerous to pass to public knowledge, even to your family. I can only imagine the number of people that would search for you if they knew about it. They might use your family to get to you, so for your protection and theirs, Lucy Schwart would have to go away indefinitely."

"So what if I said no, I didn't want to join Torchwood. I'd still be out in public with this on me." How could I leave my family without even saying goodbye?

"Well then, we could no longer take responsibility with what happens to you or your family. And keep in mind, your DNA is no longer human, if you turn into an alien threat, we will have to take action." Jack crossed his arms. I knew he was serious.

"Can I have the night to think about it?" He nodded his head. "What else did you want to talk to me about?"

"The state of what is on your back. We all agree that before you go anywhere, we need to map out what each thing does. Ianto is working on finding another warehouse, this time one _without _Weevils. I'm sure you agree with us, so we'll work on that tomorrow. The rest of what I need to talk to you about can wait until tomorrow, when you make your decision."

"Alright, sounds like a plan to me. Do you need me for anything else?"

"No, that's all. I think Gwen wanted to speak to you, but if you're too tired from all the excitement today, I'm sure she'll understand."

I smiled at Jack and closed the door behind me. Gwen was waiting at her desk. "Hello, fancy a walk?" she asked.

"Sure, um, would it be possible to get another change of clothes?" I glanced down at what I was wearing. Gwen was right, it did scream escaped psychiatric patient.

We walked back to the room Gwen had given me the jeans and hoodie from. "You know, back in America, I don't think I ever had to make this many wardrobe changes in a day." I wondered if they would let me go out and buy a few outfits myself if I was going to be staying here much longer. The thought of wearing clothing that had once belonged to other people made me uneasy.

There were a lot of boxes in the room, a few older army uniforms were hanging up as well. I started rifling through the boxes as Gwen searched for something that would fit me. Some of the clothing in the boxes had clothing that looked to be from the mid-20th century. Behind those boxes were even more worn down boxes, they looked quite old. I didn't have a chance to peek in them because Gwen said she had found something for me to wear.

She was holding up a knee-length blue dress that was cut in an a-line. Despite the shoulders and neck being made out of lace, it was a casual dress. "I think I may have a spare pair of tights you can wear underneath, it gets quite chilly at night here this time of year. See if you can find some shoes over there while I go get them." I wondered why she wasn't giving me a set of more practical clothing. This sure was a change of pace from earlier. Maybe this was her way of trying to entice me to stay with the team.

I went through the box of shoes and found a pair in my size. They were plain and brown with a low heel, it looked like they came from the 70's. When Gwen got back, I asked her how long Torchwood had been around.

"Oh, you know, a while," she said mysteriously. I put the clothing on. "Looking good," Gwen looked me up and down, "Now you look like a proper girl and not some science experiment. Come on, let's take the scenic route and have a talk. I wish I had some make up for you to put on."

"Why?"

"Sometimes it just feels nice to feel girly." I was getting an increasing suspicion that she was hiding something from me. We walked out into the Hub, Owen wolf whistled, "Oh stop it Owen, you're making her feel uncomfortable." I actually quite liked the attention, but I would never tell Owen that, I'd be afraid of the response. It was nice though, to be treated like a person and not just a patient.

"You two going somewhere?" shouted Owen as the concrete slab started to ascend.

"I just need to speak to Lucy for a sec. I'll let you know when we're done."

"What's all this about Gwen, the dress and wanting to talk?"

She stayed quiet for a few minutes as we walked towards the water and sat on some steps. She looked like she didn't know where to start and I didn't know how to help her. I looked out over the water. It was still very murky. The sun should be setting about now, but it was hard to tell with all the cloud cover, the skies were still threatening to open up. I just hoped it would wait until later. It was nice to sit outside for a change and feel the breeze.

"I don't know what you told Jack, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to join Torchwood. I love this job, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's dangerous and you'll probably never have a normal life outside of it. There is no leaving this job. It's like a drug you can't quit. This job gets to you. I can't look at the sky without thinking of all the alien planets out there. Everything seems so small and pointless compared to it. I know you're already permanently tangled up in this because of your back, but there are other options."

"Like what?" My only options seems to be join Torchwood, or not. How could there be anything else?

"We could freeze you until we develop a way to get that off your back. You wouldn't age and we could wake you right back up as soon as we get something."

"And how long would that take?" I didn't want to be frozen for centuries. What if something happened and they forgot about me?

"Who knows? A month, a year? Something that could help us could fall through the rift tomorrow, it's impossible to tell."

"I don't think so. I haven't given Jack my answer yet, but I'd rather be out in the world than doing nothing. Like you said, who knows when you would wake me up? My old life would be gone by then anyway, not that I'd even be able to return to it now. Jack said if I joined, I wouldn't be able to talk to my family or friends anymore, Lucy Schwart would go missing indefinitely," Gwen nodded her head, "is that what the rest of you had to do?"

"No, you're situation is a bit unique, with the alien device and all."

"What happens when the Doctor comes back for me. He is coming back right? I heard Jack saying he left a note saying he'd be back. What then?"

"I don't know Lucy, Jack never really talks about that Doctor bloke. As for when he'll be back, we don't even know how he got here in the first place, or how he left, who's to say he'll ever be back. He was probably afraid of what that thing would do to you and rather us kill you than him have to do it if you were dangerous. Seems a bit cowardly to me." She looked out over the water.

I just pondered on that for a bit. I didn't know what to say, she had a point. Why didn't the Doctor stay? I sighed. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about? It's a bit chilly out here and I'd rather go in."

"Well, the team was talking about taking you out for drinks tonight. They all thought you'd say yes right away. I suppose we can go out for drinks anyway. We Welsh don't really need an excuse to drink. Come on, I'll text the others and they can meet us somewhere."

Gwen led me to a pub. From my American eye, it was the typical english pub; wood paneling, fat old guy behind the bar serving, a row of taps. The bar was floating in the center of the room with stools set around it. There were only a couple of people in the bar. It was still early and was a Thursday night. I suspected tomorrow it would be a lot more crowded for the weekend. The bartender asked me what I wanted to drink, I just looked at Gwen, "I don't have any money, " I whispered to her.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll pick up your tab tonight, plus you don't look like a heavy weight," she smiled with her gap tooth grin. She ordered me a lager. We sat there, quietly nursing our drinks until everyone else came in. It was a few minutes before everyone arrived. The only person missing was Jack. Owen said he was staying behind to monitor the rift activity, it had been awfully quiet lately. Everyone solemnly nodded in agreement.

"Let's not talk about work tonight everyone. This is an evening of celebrating our new member!" Owen raised his glass. Toshiko and Ianto followed the suit, but I just looked down into my glass, I had assumed Gwen did the same.

"She hasn't given Jack her answer yet Owen and frankly, I think it's a good idea she gives it a bit of thought. This isn't an easy job." Gwen put her arm on my shoulder. "But I agree it'll be good not to talk about work for a change."

I was glad Gwen had answered for me. I didn't have the heart to tell Owen, who had put so much of his time into helping me, that I might not join. It _was _a hard decision. It would mean having to give up everything, including myself.

We all sat around and talked for a while, the conversation not quite as happy now that everyone didn't know whether or not to celebrate. After a while, the conversations had split off a bit. Toshiko was arguing with Ianto about something to do with ethics. Gwen had stepped outside to talk on the phone with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Owen was downing his third beer. I didn't know how he did it, I had barely finished my first and was gingerly sipping at my second. Drinking wasn't really my thing. I much rather be home, curled up with a nice book or my knitting.

"You know the best thing about working with Jack is you never know what to expect," Owen started, "I remember one time there had been a spike in rift activity a little outside the city, in the suburbs. Imagine it, cookie cutter houses everywhere with the fancy little trimmed garden and gnomes and what-have-you. We pin pointed the location of the activity when all of a sudden we hear this scream. We all got out of the SUV and ran into this lady's backyard. There she was with her rubbers on, holding a garden hoe in one hand and a flower with the other. Now a first glance, this flower looked like a normal daisy, but she was holding it away from her face, her arm completely covered in this green slime that was oozing from the flower. Next thing you know, the flower grew and grew like the magic beanstalk from the fairy tale until it burst everywhere! It covered us all in this horrible slime that took forever to get out of my hair. Poor Toshiko was still pulling it out of her hair weeks later.

"I remember she was giving her report to the team about the flower and its composition when she was scratching her head and all of a sudden, a huge glob of it fell onto her hand!" Owen snorted into his glass, laughing trying to tell the next part "So, so she flings it off her hand in surprise and bam! It hits Jack straight in the face!" Owen was howling at this point, "The look on his face was priceless."

"I hope you're not telling her the story about that horrible exploding flower. Just when I got all that goop out of my hair, Tosh had to go flinging another piece right in it." Jack had appeared out of no where, a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Alright team, there was a huge spike in rift activity five minutes ago, let's go, I've got the SUV parked out front. I'd really rather not have to pay another parking ticked after the one Owen racked up for us infront of that law house."

"Hey, you told me to pull over, so I did!" he rebuttled.

Jack shot him a look, "Where's Gwen?"

"She went out front to talk to Rhys, didn't you see her?"

"No, alright, someone call her and tell her we're moving out. Lucy, you coming?" I was taken aback. I wasn't technically part of the team, so I didn't know what my responsibility would be. I supposed it wouldn't hurt to go and shadow, just in case.

"Uh, sure." I wasn't really dressed for it, but I guess that couldn't be helped. I walked out front with Toshiko and Owen and got into the SUV.

"I don't think so, buddy, not with how much you've drank tonight." Jack hauled Owen out of the driver seat.

"Oi, you don't even know how much I drank!" he protested.

"Judging by the amount of time you've been there, I'd say you've had at least three. I'd rather not get my whole team killed by a drunk driver tonight. Tosh, what do you have about that rift activity?"

Owen reluctantly climbed in the back with me. "Seems to have happened somewhere on these cross streets," she said pointing to her mobile GPS, "definitely was a huge spike, but it was short. Hopefully whatever came through is still in the area, we'd better hurry, just in case." She was sitting in the mini workstation on the back. I was astonished at how much equipment they were able to fit back there.

"Ianto, where's Gwen?"

"I can't get ahold of her, sir."

"Alright, well, just get in, she'll have to meet us there. Let's move out." He hit the gas pedal and started driving according to Toshiko's directions, she was trying to get more information on exactly what came out of the rift so that we would know what to expect.

"This latest rift spike did just what my calculations predicted; it was seeming like something was blocking up the rift, something huge, and it's finally belched it out. I'm trying to locate and CCTV that might clue us into what we're facing," Toshiko was tapping furiously at her computer. "It's a mostly residential area so there aren't a whole lot of surveillance cameras in the area." Jack glances at her in the rear view mirror and sped up. Apparently everyone was thinking the same thing, _If this thing was dangerous, the last place it needs to be is in a residential area._

Toshiko clicked her tongue, "I can't find any footage, we're going to have to go into this blind. I'll keep an eye on surrounding footage, but there's nothing at the actual site. If it's mobile, it hasn't appeared to have moved yet. Oh, take a left at this road Jack, we're almost there."

"Ianto, any word from Gwen yet?"

"Nothing sir. I'll keep trying."

The closer we got, the more nervous I felt. The sinking feeling just seemed get deeper and deeper. Maybe it was just be, but the rest of the team seemed to be a little more fidgety than normal. Owen's leg kept shaking and Toshiko kept clicking between screens a lot. There didn't seem to be the excitement in the air that I had felt before when the team went out to investigate their "unusual activity".

Jack stopped right before he entered the crossroads that Toshiko had names. We all climbed out of the SUV, myself reluctantly.

The scene was very bizarre, almost a little too staged. The street lights were casting an eerie glow on the entire intersection. Off in the distance, thunder growled, it looked like we'd be getting a storm tonight afterall. A sudden breeze went through the trees, causing the whole team to jump. And right in the center of the intersection, and I mean dead center, like if you took a tape measure and measured to each road at the intersection, they'd be exactly equidistant, was a small rectangular box. It couldn't be more than a foot in length and six inches in height. At this distance, it was impossible to tell what it was made out of. The shadows that the streetlights cast on it made it seem black.

"Alright, is it me or does anyone else have the heebeejeebies?" Owen asked. I thought it had just been me, being nervous about going out with the team on official business.

"I thought it was just me," Jack answered and glanced back at us. "I don't like this. According to Toshiko, we should have been expecting something huge and not just a box. Toshiko, any interesting readings?"

"I'm getting huge energy reading from the box, but I can't tell exactly what it is yet. It doesn't seem to be dangerous, no radiation, no signs of life forms. It looks like this is the only thing to come through. Despite the fact it's giving off huge amounts of energy, it really shouldn't have been causing any kind of back up in the rift, we've had bigger things come through before."

"Ok, well let's go pick it up before it gets run over." We all walked purposefully towards it, but stopped about ten feet away. There was a nagging feeling I kept getting, like someone was watching me. i kept having to look over my shoulder to check. The sinking feeling in my stomach also hadn't gone away, in fact, it seemed to get worse. Every nerve in my body at this point seemed to be screaming at me to get back in the SUV and to get as far away from this thing as possible. I looked at the other team members. If Owen had hackles, they would be raised, he kept glancing around like I was. A single tear rolled down Toshiko's face, she hadn't even seemed to notice. Ianto and Jack had drawn guns and were pointing at the shadows. Everyone seemed to be teetering on a knife's edge.

No one seemed to want to move closer. "So what now?" I asked, my voice cracking. I didn't know why I was so scared, it was just a box.

Jack looked at the box. "Tosh, any life signs?" she shook her head. "I keep feeling like I'm seeing something just out of the corner of my eye. I really don't like this. Someone go get that thing so we can get out of here." Still no one moved.

I sighed, was this the kind of thing they dealt with dail\y? Ominous boxes in the middle of the street? Why was everyone so nervous?

Owen and I started moving towards the box at the same time, "Jack, cover us. I don't like this just as much as you. I feel like something is going to jump out at us."

When we got closer to it, it was easier to see the detail on the box. It was a plain black box that didn't have a lid, it was seamless and looked like it was made out of plastic. On the side opposite us there were a few nobs, unlabeled. Each step towards the thing made my legs scream to go in the opposite direction. I could feel my hands tremble as I was reaching down towards it. _Oh for God's sake, it's just a box Lucy, get it together!_

The box seemed warm as I picked it up, but definitely not a pleasant warm. It was like all the things in the world that weren't nicely warm; room temperature milk, a creepy person's sweaty hands, putting a hand too close to a turned on light bulb, vomit.

Nothing seemed to happen when I picked it up. In fact, as soon as I picked it up, all the tension seemed to dissolve away. I turned back to the team to tell them it was ok and we were all just being silly. The sight that greeting me was not the one I left.

Everyone was strewn on the ground, bloody. It looked like something had attacked them. I looked down at Owen, who had been standing next to me seconds ago. He looked like he had been in a fight with a meat grinder. There was blood everywhere. His arm was half torn off and he wasn't breathing. _Oh God._ I started hyperventilating. From the time I had picked up the box to when I had straightened up couldn't have been more than two seconds. _What was going on?_

I saw someone stir on the ground. I ran over to him, or what was left of him. It was Captain Jack. I fell to my knees next to him, tears pouring out my eyes, the box still in hand. "Oh God Jack, what happened?"

"I knew I was wrong to trust you Lucy, I told the team you'd be a threat but they wouldn't listen and now they're all dead because of you." He half whispered, blood was coming out of his mouth.

"Jack, what are you talking about, what happened?" I could still feel the hot tears pouring out of my eyes.

"Don't pretend like you don't know. Look at your hands, that's our- " he coughed, it was a chest heaving wrack, "our blood on them. I only hope he can put a stop to you." With that, Jack's eyes glazed over and he was dead.

I stood up and backed away, this couldn't be happening. What did he mean I did this? I looked down at my hands, I didn't even realize I wasn't holding the box anymore. They were covered in blood up to my elbows. The dress Gwen gave me was stained blood, _their blood_.

I turned around. In the center of the street where the box had been originally, the Doctor was standing, sonic screwdriver in hand. "You came back, Doctor you have to help them!" I looked back at where my team had been, they were gone. It looked like nothing had happened. I spun back towards the Doctor was standing, he was now walking towards me.

"No one can help them now Lucy, they're dead, you killed them, you're a monster." he lifted his sonic screw driver up at me and the blue light came on. "Lucy, I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry." My vision went black.

I opened my eyes and sat blot upright, or tried to, there were hands holding my wrists and shoulders. Someone was screaming. "Lucy, Lucy! It's us, calm down!" I realized it was me screaming, I stopped and looked around, my eyes wide. Owen was holding my wrists, Jack had his hands on my shoulders. Toshiko was standing off to the side with her hand covering her mouth. Ianto was no where to been seen.

What was going on? I had just seen them all dead. The box was now laying across the street on it's side, like it had been kicked over there.

Someone was talking to me, but I wasn't paying attention, I was trying to figure out what I had just seen. I wrenched my hands away from Owen's grasp and looked them over, _no blood_. My mouth was still hanging open, Owen was shining a light in my eyes at this point, I realized he was asking me questions, "Sorry, what?" I hadn't made out what he said.

"He was asking you what happened." Jack was standing up, still looking around. The tension was back in the air. Rain was starting to fall.

"I- I don't know." I reluctantly told them what I had saw. I didn't want them thinking I would actually kill them.

"Ianto's going to get a special containment chamber from the Hub now. When you picked that thing up, you immediately started seizing. Owen thought it was your device malfunctioning, but as soon as Jack kicked it out of your hands, you stopped seizing and started screaming. We didn't know what was going on," Toshiko informed me. "Jack, there were huge energy spike coming out of that thing after she picked it up, any idea what it is?" Owen helped me to my feet, the rain started coming down harder now.

"No, I want this area clear though until Ianto gets back and no one touch that thing. Has anyone been able to get ahold of Gwen?" Just as Jack said that, a car pulled up and Gwen came running out.

"Sorry Jack, I had to run back to the flat really quick to help Rhys with something." she shouted, still running towards it. Gwen seemed to be unfazed by it, or hadn't noticed its effect yet. "Is that it? I was expecting something bigger." She reached down to pick it up, "What a dis-"

"Gwen no, don't-" Jack was shouting just as she touched it. It was too late though, her hand was already on it, her eyes had a blank stare. It was like she was looking at something that wasn't there.

"Gwen?" Toshiko asked tentatively. No response. Jack knocked it out of her hands with her foot, and then the screaming started again.


	4. The Nightmare Box (Torchwood 101 pt 2)

"Gwen snap out of it!" Jack yelled at her, shaking her shoulders. Owen went jogging over to them to check her vitals. As he was doing that, Jack tossed his jacket over the box, presumably so no one else would be tempted to pick it up.

When Gwen finally stopped screaming, she sank down to the ground and put her head in her hands, she was crying. "There was- there was- blood everywhere," she gasped.

"I know," Owen said, probably trying to comfort her, "now calm down and tell us what you saw. Tosh come over here and record this," she went over.

I felt sorry for Gwen. What I had seen had seemed so _real._ I could reach out and touch Jack, I could _feel_ the warmness of the blood on my hands. I shuddered as I recalled it. It seemed like a memory, not a vision. And the way the Doctor had looked at me, with that sadness in his eyes. I would never forget that look, even if it wasn't real.

"It was Rhys," Gwen managed to get out, she was clutching Owen's arm, staring at nothing in particular. "He was just there, lying in the bath tub, his wrists slit, knife still in hand. He left a note, it said-" she choked on a sob, "it said 'Gwen, I love you, but I _know_," she glanced at Owen, "I can't deal with the lies anymore, this is all your fault.' He killed himself because of me. There was so much blood, his blood, everywhere." She put her head back down on her knees, "what is that thing?" Everyone glanced at Jack.

Jack put his hands up defensively, "Hell if I know. That's what we're here for. Toshiko, any guesses or responses from the scans?"

"Well Lucy's and Gwen's visions both seem to contain the same basic theme, fear. It's hard to tell without further analysis, but it looks like the device shows the user their fears. As for why, or how, I'll have to do an analysis at the Hub."

"So these are visions, right?" Gwen asked, a hint of panic in her voice.

"It would seem to be that way. When Gwen picked it up, there was another huge energy spike coming from the device. The sooner we can get it back to the Hub and run scans, the better. This thing is just emminating bad vibes." Toshiko finished.

"Well it's no wonder we haven't seen anyone yet tonight. The device is probably driving them all subconsciously away. If I had a choice, I wouldn't have driven this way tonight. Ianto should be here any minute now. Let's hope he hurries up. What is with you Welsh and this rain? I feel like I'm never going to see the sun again. At this point I'd take even a glimpse of the moon," Jack looked up at the sky.

I agreed with him. This rain was cold, I much preferred the snow, at least it was pretty and wouldn't clog the gutters with leaves and trash like it was doing here. I wrapped my arms around myself to try to conserve some body heat. Don't get me wrong, I loved the cold, but I didn't enjoy getting pneumonia and being soaking wet.

Everyone was busy doing their own thing while waiting for Ianto. Toshiko was huddled under a tree, tapping at the scanner she had in her hand. Owen was still talking with Gwen, in hushed whispers. Jack was on the phone, probably telling Ianto to hurry up. The box may have been out of site, under Jack's coat, but that didn't make the menacing feeling go away, if anything in felt like it was getting slightly stronger. The more I stood here, the more it felt like it was creeping its way into my bones, slithering around me until I'd be trapped in it's darkness forever.

I wished I could give the box a nice, solid kick. That's really what it deserved. It was still hard to believe, that that tiny, little non-descript box could be causing all of this. Why would an alien civilization even want to make something like this?

Jack was off the phone, so I went up to talk to him, "So why would an alien civilization make this thing? Is it supposed to be some kind of game or something?"

"Dunno. Could be. You humans have haunted houses around halloween and scary movies. You're always inventing new ways to scare yourselves, to get that adrenaline rush, why should aliens be any different?" He crossed his arms, "Or it could be a war device. Amplify those emotions a thousand times, and you could bring a whole army to its knees, drive them mad. Or it could be a torture device, who knows? We won't know any more about it til Tosh get's a chance to scan it back at the Hub. Man will I be glad when it's put away. We haven't even been around it that long and I'm already sick of it. Do you see anything with your thermal vision?"

"To be honest, I haven't tried." I had been too exhausted to try using it on my own. Like the jumping, I didn't even know where to start. _Well, no time like the present_. I closed my eyes and just tried to think about seeing the heat signatures of everything.

When I reopened my eyes, everything was brightly colored, like back in the warehouse. The members of my team showed up bright red due to their body heat. The surrounding environment was mostly blue on top, the rain leeching away their heat, fading away to a yellow color. The streets and sidewalks were all blue. The houses that lined the road were a warm orange color. I could see people moving about within them. Most were sleeping, a few were doing, well, each other. Some late night insomniacs were up and moving about. I could see where the windows and the doors were on the houses, the poor insulation leaking the warmth to the outside.

I looked over to where the box was. Jack's coat still held some of its body heat, quickly being leeched away by the rain. The box underneath also seemed to be trying to reach a state of equillibrium with it. The box was an orange color, but even that seemed wrong, like it had a brown tinge to it, like the warmth was rotting away. It looked like it was trying to seep into Jack's coat.

I glanced up at the streets surrounding us,not wanting to look at the box anymore, it made me ill, they were deserted, save for one car zooming towards us. "Looks like Ianto is here," I announced.

Jack was looking at me, "What does the box show?" Before when my thermal vision had been activated, Jack mentioned my eyes were red, I could only assume that's what was happening.

"I don't really know how to describe it, even the thermal signature looks wrong. Like the houses around us are a nice warm orange color, but this, just isn't the same. It's warm, but _off_ somehow. It's got kind of a brown tinge to it. Sorry Jack, I just don't know enough about this vision yet to know what that could mean. Everything else looks normal. I would have your jacket dry cleaned after this though, It looks like the box is trying to ooze it's nastiness into it." I turned the vision off, it was disorientating, it would take some getting used to.

"Oh great, just what I need that nightmare box oozing it's nastiness all over my favorite coat," he shrugged, "I guess it could always be worse." Jack went to go snatch his jacket up as Ianto carried over what looked like a steel enforced glass container.

"Sorry, hit a bit of traffic on my way back. Also had to fight that nagging urge to just turn around and run. Everything alright, sir?"

Jack was frozen, one hand still on the jacket, halfway to picking it up off the ground. I switched my thermal vision back on. _Oh no, oh no, no,no_. groaned and ran my hands through my hair. Owen was walking around Jack by now, afraid to touch him since Jack had no obvious connection to the box, he was snapping his fingers in front of Jack's glazed over eyes. Gwen, however, had her gaze locked on me. It seemed she had noticed I turn my vision back on.

"What is it Lucy, what's happened?" she asked.

"I don't know for certain, but it look like whatever that box is, it's transferred it's properties over to Jack's coat. Hold on." I crouched down next to his coat. "Owen, do you think you could lift his jacket up a bit with your foot?" _Just as I suspected_. "The box is gone, whatever it is, morphed itself completely onto Jack's coat."

This wasn't good. If this nightmare box, as Jack called it, could transfer itself from one object to another, how could we stop it? What was stopping the box from transferring into the road, or even another person?

Ianto started tugging at the jacket to get it out of Jack's grip; he was wearing thick leather gloves, "Come on now Jack, I it's a nice jacket, but you have to let go." Jack seemed to have a death grip on the coat with his hand. His knuckles were white and he was still staring straight ahead, mouth slightly open like he was about to say something.

The rain was falling harder now, soaking everything through, everyone just wanted to get out of here, especially me. It had been a very long day and I was shivering. Owen walked up to me and crossed his arms. "Cold? You could always use Jack's coat to warm up," he nodded towards it, "What do you say we end things quickly?" I nodded and Owen smiled. Suddenly, Jack pulled out his Webley, pointing it at nothing in particular. "Alright Jack, it's time for a nap, " Owen had pulled a needle out of his bag. "Ianto, help me catch him," he shoved the needle in Jack's neck. All of Jack's muscles looked like they went taught, his eyes went wide and then he fell forward, his grip on his coat relinquished.

"Gwen, be a dear and shove his coat into that containment chamber Ianto brought," Owen told Gwen. Toshiko looked as though she was still doing scan on her device. Gwen just rolled her eyes, she looked like she was holding back a snarky remark. "Oh and be careful not to touch it again. Your scream probably woke up all the people in the cemetary we passed on the way here."

"Shove it Owen." She had take her coat and used it as make-shift gloves to put it into the box Ianto had brought over. When the lid clicked shut, it was like all the tension in the air had snapped. A huge lift had been taken off our shoulders, everyone [except Jack, obviously] breathed a sign of relief. "Now unless you need me for any more ridiculously hard tasks, I will see you all in the morning. I believe I have a nice hot shower waiting for me at home." Gwen smiled and walked back to her car. Owen mumbled something under his breath, Toshiko just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

Ianto and Owen carried Jack back to the car and shoved him in the back seat. Toshiko and I carried the containment chamber back to the trunk of the car, neither of us wanted to be this close to it, but sharing the load seemed to take away a bit of its meanacing aura, not that we could really feel it anymore. It was like looking at a picture of a particularly nasty spider, the spider wasn't in the room with you, but you could still almost feel it's legs crawling all over your body.

Toshiko and I crammed in the back of the SUV with Jack. We had been driving for about ten minutes when Jack began to stir. "Oh man, I haven't felt like this since spending the night in the Azure belt pounding back suicide vodkas with a Raxacoricofallapatorian," he was rubbing his forehead with both hand, "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us what happened to you. You just froze and then pulled out your gun after a few minutes."

"Sorry, everything is blank. It's like I went to pick up my coat and everything went black. Where is my coat by the way?" Someone must have pointed him to the container in the back, "Oh no," he groaned, "don't tell me..." It was at this point I realized I had leaned my head against the window with my eyes closed, exhaustion was quickly washing over me.

"Lucy figures it's taken on the properties of the box, " Toshiko explained, "she said the heat signature looked like it had been transferred from the box to your coat. When we lifted your coat up, the box had disappeared as well."

"Great, now I have the coat from hell, that'll be a great pick up line at bars. Looks like the day has tired her out." I could hear him smirk.

"It's been a long first day for her. Weevils and now this, that's enough to tire anyone out. Gwen drove home already in her car, she said she'll be with us in the morning," It was Owen that had come to my defense.

"Well, technically, she isn't a member yet. She hasn't agreed to join us." Jack countered.

"I wouldn't be so certain she won't join us. I saw that spark in her, the eagerness to solve know what that box was. Probably the same you saw in us when we were recruited. And plus, who could resist this face?" I could assume he was pulling some kind of ridiculous face. I smiled.

"I'm still awake, you know, and I still haven't decided. I've seen more in the past day than I even knew existed. I've been kidnapped, tied down, operated on and had needles shoved in most parts of my body. I don't know if this is the kind of life I want to lead. I don't know how you guys came to join Torchwood, but from what Gwen's told me, it isn't always the ideal career choice. How could I give up my old life, my family, my friends? Just up and leave their lives without warning. This choice doesn't just effect me, it effects everyone I know and love. Sorry for being so melodramatic, but it is kind of a big decision, probably the biggest I'll ever have to make in my life." It was probably the longest speech I've given to anyone in this team thus far, they all just looked at me.

"I wouldn't count on that just yet. Despite all that, could you really go back to your old life knowing what's out there now? I can give you all the amnesia pills in the world and it still wouldn't change the fact you've got an alien device on your back that's not coming off any time soon. You would never be able to go back to your old life, plain and simple." Those were the kind of thoughts I had been avoiding that Jack now brought up. Could I really go back to just being a student, knowing now that there's so much more out there? Could I sit behind a computer all day without my mind constantly wandering off to what could have been? _Probably not_ I told myself. _Realistically, it would always nag at me until I'm old and bitter._

I just looked out the window and chose not to respond. We were almost back at headquarters. I wasn't looking forwards to spending the night in the same place as that box, even if it was contained. I could feel it testing the borders of the containment chamber, looking for any weaknesses, any chance of escape, to come corrupt more things in this world. Toshiko seemed to read my mind.

"I don't envy you, Lucy, sleeping in the Hub with that thing tonight. Even being in that containment chamber, it's like I can feel it staring at me," she shivered a bit, Ianto agreed with her.

"Well why don't you just stay at my place tonight, you can sleep on the couch, " Owen volunteered sheepishly, knowing what remarks were going to come next.

Jack snorted, "Moving in on the new members before they're even members now are you, Owen? I think this has to be a record, even for you. It's up to Lucy though, if she feels like she'd be more comfortable..."

It would be nice to sleep somewhere where the doors didn't lock on the outside for a change, especially when that thing was in the Hub. "Sure, to be honest, I was going to request a room that locked from the _inside_ anyway tonight. I'd really rather be as far away from that as possible. I don't feel like having alien induced nightmares tonight. And if he tries anything, " I nodded towards Owen, " I can always use the oppertunity to get back at him for sticking all those needles in me."

"Uh-oh, sounds like we've got some pent up rage already." Jack laughed, "Try not to hit him too hard, he's got a fragile face and we don't want Torchwood's poster boy to be sporting a black eye. Sleep in a bit in the morning everyone, it's been a long day. I'll call you if anything changes."

We had pulled up outside the tourist office by this point. Toshiko said her goodbyes and I went back in the hub to grab a change of clothes. A set of scrubs [I really would have to go shopping soon] to sleep in and another hoodie and some jeans Gwen had pulled out for me with the dress. I really didn't want to go adventuring in a dress and dress shoes again if I had to.

I awkwardly followed Owen to his car. I was never fond of sleeping in someone else's place. I always felt like I was intruding. I had never spent the night over a guy's house. Now don't get me wrong, I've dated in the past and had my share of "intimate" moments, but my partner was always gone before I went to bed.

He drove a dark blue, two-seater sports car. I didn't know the make or model, I wasn't very good at identifying that type of thing. It was a very fitting for him, he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would own a more "family-friendly" vehicle.

"Won't your girlfriend get mad at you for bringing another girl home?" I asked. I always thought it was better to assume that someone was taken. It gave the other person a boost in their confidence if they weren't taken, and they would correct me if the information was otherwise.

"Don't have a girlfriend. We don't have much time for that kind of thing with this job. Gwen is the only one of us who is dating someone and that's only because they had been together before she joined Torchwood. And plus, why would anyone want to date with this job anyway? Things get to complicated, too many secrets." Owen sped through the streets in his sports car, uncaring of the rain that poured onto the streets.

Owen's place was on the fifth floor of an apartment complex. It was a studio apartment and looked like a typical bachelor pad; modern furniture, queen size bed, a few beer cans on the table, leather sofa. It seemed very nice, I told him so.

"It's nothing much really. I don't spend a whole lot of time anyway. This job requires a lot of running around, but when I do have downtime, it allows us to at least be able to afford some comforts. If you want to go get changed, the bathroom is through that door. I'd imagine you're pretty tired, I'll get the sofa set up for you while you're in there."

That was good at least, that we'd be going right to bed, or at least I would. It _had_ been a long day, I was looking forwards to closing my eyes for the night, well morning now. I just hoped I wouldn't have any nightmares. I changed into the scrubs and folded the dress up and put my shoes on top of it, I would shower in the morning.

I looked around the bathroom. There were an awful lot of facial products in here for a guy. Did all guys have this much? Besides that, all that was on the sink was a bottle of multivitamins and a shaving razor. I guess I had been expecting more _alien_ stuff. He did work for an alien organization afterall. Did they ever bring stuff home? _I guess they wouldn't want normal pepole seeing it if they came over._

I bruushed my hair out with my fingers, it was still damp from standing out in the rain. My hair was very plain, brown and a bit past my shoulders with a slight wave in it. I didn't have any bangs, I didn't really have the time to do my hair every morning, so I kept it simple. I sighed, I was so _normal_, I didn't look like someone who should be tangled up in this kind of thing, but here I was. The past day had made me realize that there would be no escaping this. I would never be able to live a normal life again. Anyway, I had something to offer to the team, didn't I? _Jack said it himself, there were times he could've used me. I could save people. What could be a more fulfilling career choice than that?_

I walked out of the bathroom and Owen had put some sheets, blanket and pillow on the sofa. "You know, for someone who doesn't have a girlfriend, you have an awful lot of beauty products."

He laughed, but somehow, it sounded sad, "The last girl I dated said the same thing when she first came here," he paused, his eyes seemed far away for a second, "Well, anyway, you know where the bathroom is, I'm going to bed now, it's been a long day as I'm sure you know." He turned out all the lights as I climbed into my makeshift bed. I heard him throw some clothes on the floor. I really hoped he didn't sleep naked, that could make things very awkward.

"What happened to her, the last girl you dated?" I asked into the darkness, "I thought you said you didn't have time for relationships with Torchwood."

"She left. She had come through the rift on an airplane and left the same way. She wasn't one to settle down I suppose. It wasn't that long ago actually. We weren't together very long, but it was the first time since I joined Torchwood that I actually felt something other than lust for another woman. She was amazing."

I thought about that for a few minutes, I wasn't sure I wanted to ask more questions about it. It seemed like a painful story, something hollywood would make that made you cry unneccessary tears at the end. "Owen, why did you join Torchwood?"

"Well I had originally set out to be a doctor, I wanted to save people, but something happened. An alien parasite killed my fiance. That was when Jack found me and helped me pick up the pieces..." Owen's life sounded very sad from what I had heard so far. Two broken hearts, ripped apart by the supernatural. It gave me a new perspective on his womanizing attitude. I could see now why he wouldn't want to get attached.

"I'm sorry, Owen. I didn't realize... You don't have very good luck with that kind of thing, do you?"

"No, I suppose I don't, now if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep now."

Oh great, I had probably offended him now. "Goodnight, and thanks Owen," he just grunted and rolled over in his bed.

I didn't sleep very well that night. Whether that was due to sleeping on the couch or the events occurring the day before, I couldn't say. I woke up to Owen calling my name. I hadn't slept nearly long enough at this point, it was hard to pull myself out of my dreamless slumber.

I could immediately tell something was wrong, not because the windows showed that the sun had barely risen and Owen was waking me up, but because of the feeling in the air. It was the same as the night before, when we had gotten close to the nightmare box.

"Owen, what's going on? Why does it feel like..." I trailed off, he knew what I meant. He was already rushing around the apartment, grabbing things to get ready.

"Jack called, apparently that thing managed to find its way out of the containment chamber and latched itself onto the water tower and is using that to broadcast some kind of signal."

_So much for my morning shower_. I hopped off the couch and grabbed the change of clothes I had brought. I used his hair brush to bring my hair into some order and scrubbed my teeth using my finger and some of Owen's toothpaste. I glanced at myself in the mirror. There were bags and dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. My hair was a frizzy mess from the rain and tossing and turning in my sleep last night. I'm normally not one for makeup, but my appearance right now definitely left me wanting. I sighed and moved back out to the living area.

Owen was waiting for me, some type of pastry in hand. "What is this?" I inquired.

"A type of breakfast. Eat on your way down, we need to get going."

I bit into the pastry. I had a flaky outside and was filled with potatoes and ham on the inside, "It's like a Hot Pocket!" I exclaimed.

"A what?"

"A piece of bread with things shoved on the inside. You shove it in the microwave and eat it. Of course, I've never had one with potatoes before." We were at his car by now. He just looked at me, his face saying he was clearly too tired for this. I didn't blame him. I felt like I was running on some kind of hysteria. If the ominous feeling had traveled this far out, how bad was it back at the Hub?

My question was answered steadily as we neared the Hub. I couldn't sit still, I could only imagine how Owen felt. If I were in the driver's seat, we'd be going 80 mph in the opposite direction. "You sure you don't want to take a sick day today?"

He half smiled. "If only... If we got sick days, today would definitely be a day to use them. I'm pretty sure if I skipped out of work today, Jack would be pounding on my door and hauling my ass back to the Hub."

We parked and started the walk towards the city center. We were taking the stone slab entrance straight down to the center of the Hub. No one was walking about. I didn't blame them. The old people probably felt like they were having heart attacks and the younger ones probably felt like they were having panic attacks. I could imagine the screaming babies and barking dogs somewhere.

The closer we got to the tower, the feeling got exponentially worse. I felt like I was trudging through waist deep mud to get there. The tension in the air was palpable. Every muscle in my body was screaming at me to turn the other way, the device on my back actually _felt_ like it was pulling me in the opposite direction. By the time we reached the slab, my body was in full fight or flight mode. I looked at Owen, he was clenching and unclenching his fists, his jaw moving as he grinded his teeth. I'm sure if I felt his pulse, it would be skyrocketing.

We descended into the Hub in silence. As we got to the bottom, Ianto approached us, tray in hand. "On today's menu in a nice chamomile tea. I figured the calming effect might help clear your heads."

"Thank you Ianto," I took a cup and saucer. I wondered if this would really have any affect. Owen just walked past him and straight to Toshiko's desk, where she sat, brows drawn together.

Jack was standing on the catwalk leading to his office. I could see the vein pulsing in his forehead from here. It was obvious he was struggling with this as well. "Nice of you two to join us. Tosh, we're meeting in the board room, five minutes," his voice was taught, like he was holding back a scream, "Lucy, I want to see you in my office."

I brought my cup and saucer up to his office with me, making as wide a berth as possible around the tower that came underground into the Hub. I felt like I was the same side of a magnet, repelling against the tower. When I got to Jack's office, he was standing in the center, his arms crossed. All his muscles looked as tense as mine felt. "Let me cut to the chase, I don't think anyone wants to beat around the bush today, this thing has got us about to jump out of our skins. Torchwood, are you in or out? I can't have you working on this case if you're out. It's official business, and if you know more than you need, it's just going to make things more complicated down the road."

I was taken aback, I wasn't expecting this question so early. I had figured we would talk about what had happened with the nightmare box first. "I-" I started, but couldn't find my voice. This was too much, the tension, the choice. I felt my life stretching out in two directions in front of me. One way was with Torchwood, the other without. Both were dark, I couldn't see what lie ahead.

"Choose wisely," his voice was mocking, one eyebrow raised expectantly. I couldn't avoid the question anymore. I had given my terms and my time was up.

"I- I'm going to join Torchwood." Just then, the tension snapped and the Hub went dark.


	5. Greatest Fear

The tension the box had creating had snapped and with that, the lights in the Torchwood Hub went out. The could only mean one thing. The box had become the Hub.

"Jack?" I whispered, afraid of stirring anything that might be lurking in the darkness. There was a dim red light high above, but it was impossible to tell the source of it. The light did nothing to help my normal vision, so I switched over to thermal to find Jack. He looked to be standing in the same spot where he had been before, only now he had his Webley drawn.

"I'm over here," he whispered back, beckoning me with one bright red outstretched arm. I went over to him and took his arm, afraid to lose him. I kept my vision on and looked around. I hadn't seen Jack's office with my thermal vision before, but I assumed that this wasn't what it had looked like. It was hard to make out details of anything, everything was coated in the off-orange color. "You know, those creepy eyes of yours aren't helping this situation. Do you see anything?"

I shook my head, then realized he probably couldn't see me doing that. "No, everything is that off-orange color."

"Well I had an ear piece and gun to give you. They were on my desk, but for some reason, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Is everyone alright?" he spoke into his ear piece. "Hello? Owen? Tosh? Ianto? Gwen? Damn. Looks like our communications were cut."

"Well if this is some kind of hallucination or vision, they wouldn't work, would they? Wait, how do I know you're real?" I stepped back. Could I be hurt in a hallucination?

"If I was fake, would I show up on your thermal vision? You said everything else was coated in that orange color." He had a point. "Now assuming this is some kind of shared vision or whatever, how do we get out of it? It's probably taken over the whole Hub, so it's probably safe to assume the rest of the team is in here as well. Can you see enough to get us around?"

"Yeah I can see details in the immediate area, like outlines of things. It looks like there are just a bunch of boxes or something in here, but I can't see through them." I looked around the room a bit, not letting go of Jack's arm. The room looked to be the size of Jack's office, but the contents were definitely different. I couldn't see any plants or desks or chairs. There seemed to be a door in the direction I came from.

"There's a door over there. Did Toshiko say anything about what this thing is or how to stop it?" I asked, leading us over to the door.

"No, she was going to give her report this morning. That's how Toshiko is, she likes to surprise us all with her genius. I could use some of that genius right now. Our goal is going to be to find the others."

"And if we can't find them?" The door was closed, I reached out to open it, Jack brought his gun up, ready to fire. He didn't answer my question, I could imagine him giving me a look that said, 'let's hope that doesn't happen'.

My palms were sweaty as I opened the door. I was expecting something to jump out at us, like in some kind of horror video game. _1,2,3-_ I wrenched open the door. There were no signs of life forms on the other side. There were, however light bulbs, I could see the heat from them radiating as points on the ceiling. The color of them was still off. Instead of being bright red, they were more of a rusty red color. It reminded me slightly of blood.

I switched off my thermal vision. The door led to a long hallway with what looked like a few opening periodically. The lightbulbs lit the way dimly, some of them kept blinking on and off. All in all, it really did seem like a bad horror game or movie.

As we stepped out the door, I looked back into the room we came out of, it was a black pit. The poor lighting of the hallway didn't reach it at all. _At least we'll be able to see anything coming at us._

We crept down the hallway and stopped right before the first opening. Jack motioned for me to get behind him. I switched back on my thermal vision. Nothing. I couldn't see through these walls at all. I switched it back off. The fear of the unknown was starting to get to me. I could feel my heart pounding as Jack steeled himself to look around the corner. He did it quickly, gun aimed and ready to fire. Apparently it was all clear because he motioned for me to follow him.

As we moved down this hallway, I kept an eye behind us, I really didnt want anything sneaking up behind us, "Any idea where you're going?" I whispered.

"Nope," he half smiled. There it was again, that spark, the look of excitement at the face of danger. I might be able to feel that excitement, if I had any idea of what was going on. If this was a hallucination, how were we supposed to beat it? Every time before, it was only one person and we had to separate them from the object in order for it to stop. If the whole Hub was now the object, did that mean we had to get out of the Hub? What if it spread to the entire city or world before that happened? I could feel the panic rising in me. _Calm down, Lucy, I'm sure the team deals with stuff like this all the time and panicking is not going to help anything_. It was hard, though, to calm down when literally anything could pop around the corner any second. If this thing played off our fears then-

I had just check behind us again, down at the end of the hall, it was running towards us. I couldn't tell what is was because of the poor lighting, but it definitely wasn't one of the team members. This thing had a human like shape, but it looked like it was dragging a malformed left leg behind it. Despite that, it was able to run at us very quickly, arms flailing, scraping the sides on the stained concrete walls.

"Jack!" I exclaimed as soon as I saw the thing. He immediately turned around, aiming his Webley.

"Stop! I'm warning you, I'm armed!" The thing didn't stop coming at us, it just groaned a horrible sound. As it passed under the light, I could see this thing definitely was not human. It wasn't a Weevil either. This thing looked straight out of Silent Hill. It had pink scarred flesh and cut off jean shorts. The face was a mound of burned skin, one eye unblinking and rolling in its socket. I didn't have much more of a chance to look at it before Jack shot. He hit it square in the chest and it just kept coming. He put two more bullets in it, one in the head and one in the leg. The thing just kept coming. "Run!" he told me, like I needed much more telling.

We raced down the hallway and passed more openings. I glanced down each to make sure there were no more monsters. Jack took us right and then left down some more hallways. This race was sickeningly starting to remind me of the time I had spent aboard the alien ship with the Doctor.

As we passed another hallway, I saw a door and shouted at Jack. The monster was still pursuing us, just a little bit closer everytime I looked back. We turned around and ran for the door. We were running so fast, we both collided with the door as we reached it, both scrambling to get it open.

"It's locked!" I yelled, looking back down the hallway, hoping the monster would pass this opening. There was no such luck, it came clambering towards us.

"Stand back!" I did so a bit, not wanting to close the gap between the monster and myself. Jack started kicking the door, right above the nob. The door wouldn't budge. It looked like a heavy steel door. I thought the chances of him breaking the lock were next to none. Time was running out, he shot the lock, the bullet just ricocheted off it.

The monster was closer now. I could hear its laboring breath. "If this is a hallucination, can it really hurt us?" I asked, flattening myself against the wall. Jack was silent for a second, then his eyes got wide.

"Oh Lucy, you're a genius! If this is a hallucination, that means everything is coming from our minds, which means, " he turned the door handle, it opened effortlessly, "the door isn't really locked."

We rushed to the other side of the door and locked it behind us, not even checking what was in the next room. We could hear the monster outside banging to get in. I locked the door as Jack held it shut. "So does that mean, if we think about it hard enough, we can just imagine ourselves out of this place?"

"I don't think it'll work like that. Whatever it is, it plays off our fears and emotions. What were you thinking as we were trying to get through the door?"

"I was thinking that this is how we're going to die. As we were running up to the door, I kept wishing that it would be unlocked..."

"And what would be the worst possible outcome of that situation? The door being locked. Alright, I know it's going to be hard, but from now on, we're going to have to be careful what we think. I just wish I could get in touch with the others,..."

"Jack," I said, he really needed to take his own advice. The worst possible outcome of a situation for him as a leader, not being able to get in touch with his team. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? Oh damn- " he slapped his forehead with his palm, catching on. He took a deep breath and concentrated. He pressed the button to reactivate his ear piece. "Hello? Anyone there?" Suddenly his face split into a smile and he gave me a thumbs up.

I surveyed the room we were in as Jack spoke to the others. It was a large room. I could tell because the perimeter of the walls were lined in the same kind of red lighting that was in the first room we were in. The lighting was dull, so it didn't reach the center of the room. I turned on my thermal vision, even though at this point I knew it was probably fruitless. Like in the first room, everything was the off orange color, but I could vaguely see the outlines of things in the room. a little off the center of the room was a figure. I moved forward a bit to see if I could get a better look, not too far from Jack though, he had the only weapon. _That weapon was useless against that last monster. _No, I couldn't think that way. I had to guard my thoughts.

As I took a few more steps forward, a spotlight suddenly shone where the outline of the figure I saw had been. It was a man in a top hat and a purple tail coat. He was holding a cane. It took me a second to realize he was the ring leader in a carnival. There was a sinister smile on his face.

I looked back at where Jack had been a second ago, but there was only darkness. I was alone. Just like the time the Doctor left me on the space ship. _No, I can't think that way. I'm stronger now anyway. If this guy attacks me, I can just run away__ or kick him._ I needed to find Jack. No matter what way I looked at it, we were stronger together than apart.

"Come here little girl and see what treats I have in store for you today," the ring leader beckoned to me with one hand, the other hand leading to the center of the room. He wasn't scary so much as creepy.

"What did you do with Jack?" I called. Creepy or not, I didn't want to get any closer to him.

"You're alone now. All alone," he drawled, in a mock sympathetic tone. He disappeared and with him the spot light. Suddenly, the spot light shone on me.

"Why don't you join the circus with us. We're holding auditions now." The voice came from behind me, I spun around and suddenly I was balancing on a very narrow beam high up in the air. I had to be at least 200 feet off the ground. My stomach dropped and my knees started shaking.

I heard a crowd of people below. Before where there were just concrete walls were now stands, full of the monsters that had chased Jack and I here. They were hushed at the ring leader spoke from below, a separate spotlight now on him, "Come witness the performance of Lucy Schwart! 75 meters off the ground on a beam only 10 centimeters wide!" His voiced was booming through the whole room so even I could hear him clearly up here. "Now I'm sure this is a spectacle you've all seen before, so let's make it a bit more interesting." He pointed to the tower supporting the beam opposite of me. Suddenly, Jack was lowered onto it in a cage.

"Jack!" I yelled. This was simple all I had to do was jump to the other side.

"Not so fast there Lucy, " the ring leader said, like he was reading my thoughts, "No special powers or I drop that cage into this vat of fluoroantimonic acid." He gestured to a pool that had appeared beside him. "And everytime you falter, I'll drop that cage closer. Three strike and you're, or should I say Captain Jack, is out."

Jack had a cocky smile on his face, i couldn't imagine why, he was facing death. I didn't have time to think about that, I had to cross this plank. To be honest, it seemed almost too easy. Yeah I was afraid of heights and looking down made me queasy, but this was nothing compared to my first vision, when we found the box in the intersection. That vision shook me down to the core, this was simply_ surface_ stuff. I could face this and Jack knew that.

I started walking towards him. This was just a vision, I could change it. There was a net below me, I imagined it. _Jack wouldn't be so lucky if I fell though_.I imagined the net extending to below him. The next time I looked down, there was a net about five feet below me.

When I was about halfway across, the ring leader appeared next to Jack's cage. "What do you say we make things even more interesting?" The ring leader stroked his goatee and still had his sinister smile on. The net caught on fire. I could feel its hot flames licking at the soles of my feet. I was afraid to check if it was real, the ring leader said he'd kill Jack if I used my device.

_Best to just treat it like it's real_. I started hurrying across beam, the flames were getting hotter. I hoped my clothes wouldn't catch on fire. _Stop Lucy, just concentrate on Jack. _I looked behind me, the beam had caught on fire. _Oh shit_. If that caught on fire the whole integrity of the beam would fail, I doubled my pace, Jack was egging me on.

_None of this is real. It's all just a hallucination. I am not afraid.__ Jack is going to be ok_. The wood was starting to blacken just as I reached the other platform where Jack was. The cage he was in didn't appear to have any door to open it. I looked at the ring leader who was just standing there with his malicious smile.

"Open it," I said in the sternest voice I could muster. If I had a gun, I would've pointed it at him. The ring leader just started laughing and in a flash, he was gone and the fire started blazing out of control. _Great_. I couldn't let this phase me, I needed to keep a cool head. "Jack, what do I do?"

"I need you to get out of here and find the others, specifically Toshiko. She thinks she's come up with a way to disarm it and she needs you to help her with it."

"But what about you? You're going to roast alive in here!" I took hold of the bars on his cage and tried to pry them open. Now would be a really good time to discover I had Hulk arms or something.

"I'll be fine. Find Toshiko, here take my ear piece. This place is a maze, but maybe we'll luck out. And remember, keep your thoughts clear." The fire was getting ridiculously hot, I tried not to think about it or how Jack was possibly going to get out of it. The only thing I could do to help him at this point was to find Toshiko like he said.

"I'll find her."

"I know you will." And with that, I fitted the ear piece on and jumped from the tower. My device let me land safely. How I didn't break my ankles was a mystery to me. The landing wasn't uncomfortable and only a little jarring.

"Toshiko?" I said into the earpiece. "Are you there?"

"Lucy? I'm here. What happened to Jack?"

I couldn't tell her I left him for dead. I jogged over to a door on the opposite wall and wrenched it open. "He sent me ahead to find you. Can you tell me what's going on?"

"I'll brief you after we find you. I've got a lock on your signal. The problem with this is my scanner is still showing that we're in the Hub, the original Hub, not this crazy Wonderland. So basically, I can tell you which way to go, but it's up to you to find a path."

"Are you safe? Are any of the others with you?"

"Ianto is with me. Good thing too after his espresso machine decided to attack me." I could imagine her giving a grateful smile to him,"With the direction you're going now, if you head northeast, you should run into us. I'll update you if anything changes. or you go too far in one direction."

"Thanks Toshiko. Hopefully I'll see you soon."

So it looked like this was going to be one big game of hot and cold. I ran down some hallways, conscious to make sure I kept heading the original direction Toshiko had told me. Everything was eerily quiet, my foot steps the only thing echoing off the walls.

The only time I ever had to stop was when I hit a dead end. I called on Toshiko occasionally as well to make sure I was heading in the right direction. After a while, it started to seem like I was heading in circles. The third time I stopped, my heart leapt, I could've swore I heard something behind me. Like another footstep that stopped just a half second after I did. _Don't pay attention to it Lucy_. _That'll only give it power_.

I thought about Jack. Had he gotten out or burned alive? I couldn't even go check on him if I wanted. I had stopped keeping track of the number of twists and turns I took after a while. What was that old trick for how to get out of a maze? _Keep your right hand on the right wall and eventually you'll get to the exit_. This place could be infinitely large though, it might take me forever with that method.

I stopped for a second again and weighed my options. There it was again, the step just a little bit behind mine. "Jack?" I called out. Maybe he was tracking me, thinking I was a monster. There was no answer. "Toshiko, am I any closer?" I asked her.

"No, you're the same distance as last time, a little more east, but also a little more south. Have you seen anything? Doors? More of the monsters Jack had talked about?"

"Nothing. I think something is tracking me though. I keep hearing this foot step that's just a half second behind me. I haven't seen any doors either. It's just an endless labyrinth of hallways. I think I might try that thing where you keep your right hand on the wall and follow that."

"Alright, I'll let you know if you make any progress. Keep your eyes peeled. I don't like the sound of something tracking you."

"Thanks. Any word from Owen or Gwen?"

"None. I did get a little static about fifteen minutes ago, but nothing intelligible."

That sent shivers up my spine. Half the team was missing. Everyone was more than capable of handling themselves, but what if they were unconscious. _Or burning alive like Jack?_ I couldn't think about that, but the guilt was catching up with me. Jack probably would've found Toshiko by now. I should've been the one in the cage, not him.

_Stop it Lucy, you're just giving this thing more fuel. _And there it was again, the half second step behind mine. There was a feeling of eyes staring at me. I kept going, keeping my right hand along the wall. At least with this method, I could run faster.

The faster I went, the more mismatched the steps were with mine. I didn't know if I should confront whatever it was or if I should just let it follow me. If I let it follow me, I'd be leading it straight to Toshiko and Ianto. I stopped, the other footsteps stopped as well. "Toshiko, there's definitely something following me. I'm going to see if I can figure out what it is."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. What if you can't fight it?"

"What if you guys can't either? I'm leading it straight to you."

"Just be careful. We haven't even put you in the system yet. I don't want your start date and end date to be the same day." I smiled sadly. I wouldn't let that happen. Wait, if Toshiko could see me, could she see Jack on there as well?

"Toshiko, can you see Jack on your scanner?"

"No, my scanner is just picking up the signal of your ear piece. If I had access to my computer, I could pinpoint everyone in here. Ianto and I don't want to lose where we are though. We're by the water tower, or at least I think we are, and if my plan is going to work, that's exactly where we need to be."

This day just kept getting better. I wonder if Toshiko would have rather it had been Jack on the other end of this ear piece instead of me. _It doesn't matter at this point. I'm here, Jack isn't let's figure this out and keep moving_.

"I know you're there, you can come out now." I called behind me and turned around. Behind me, the hallway ended in another hallway that was perpendicular to it. Whatever was following me was probably just around the corner. I heard some shuffling, but nothing came out. "Jack?" I asked taking a few step back towards whatever it was. "Gwen? Owen? It's ok, it's Lucy."

"Luuuucccyyyyyy," came a gutteral voice. "Luuucccyyy," it sounded like it was choking on something. I backed up a few steps, ready to run. This definitely wasn't one of the Torchwood members.

From around the corner in the direction I had come from, he stepped out. His clothes were burned and melted to his skin, but it was definitely Jack, there was no mistaking those suspenders. His skin was twisted and bubbling, one of his eyes had melted down his face.

"Jack? You made it out? We need to get you to Owen!" But I didn't step forward. This felt wrong, Jack wouldn't stalk me like that.

"You left me Lucy, to burn. Could you hear my screams? Did they echo through the halls?"

"You told me to leave." I turned on my thermal vision. Bingo, no heat signature, I smiled. "That's a nice impression, but you're not Jack," I said.

The monster's head exploded. "You're right, I'm much more handsome than that." The real Jack (he had a heat signature) was standing behind the monster, Webley in hand. Jack ran towards me. As he did, the monster behind him started to morph. It turned back into the ring leader.

"And it's going to take much more than that to get rid of me," the ring leader said. Jack was standing in front of me now, Webley aimed.

"Get to Toshiko, leave this clown to me," Jack said over his shoulder. I turned to go, but in a flash, the ring leader was in front of me.

"I don't think so. This one has so much fear, buried so deep. I will break you, I break everyone," I could see his yellow and black teeth through his sinister smile. He looked at Jack now, "And I have something that might be of interest to you Captain Jack Harkness." He waved his cane in front of us and out of sparks came a hologram of Gwen. She was in the center of a room, a spot light on her. She was looking around frantically. I could faintly hear the sound of dogs growling.

"Gwen!" Jack yelled, "You let her go!" his voice was rightfully angry. Gwen looked up to where we were looking at her.

"Jack! I can here you! Jack, don't worry about me, get to Toshiko! She knows how to ge-" The hologram was cut off, the ring leader still smiling, but there was an annoyed look to it now.

"If you think my team members are going to beg for their lives, you're wrong. We will get out of here and we will take you now." Jack had his hand on my shoulder now. "And now, if you don't mind," he brought up his Webley and shot the ring leader square in the forehead. As he did so, he pushed my shoulder and yelled at me to go, knowing I could outrun him.

I did as he said, leaving him with the danger again. I looked back and he was shooting over his shoulder, the ring leader unphased. "Go!" Jack yelled at me again.

I raced through the hallways, making sure to follow the right hand rule I had started before. "Toshiko, I found Jack! We're finding you as fast as I can!" She replied something back, but I wasn't paying attention, a giant spider web had appeared a little ways down the hall from me, a giant spider in the center. _Wrong move ring leader_. I was only afraid of the smaller spiders, the ones that you'd find unsuspectingly in your clothes that you could feel crawling all over you.

I jumped and slid through the bottom part of the web, breaking it. The spider hissed and gave chase. I turned right down a hallway and met a dead end. _Shit_. I doubled back around, now running towards the spider. The body itself was about the size of a basketball. I vaulted over it. As I did, it shot something (I'm going to assume venom) at me. I managed to get my arms in front of my face before it hit me. The cloth of my hoodie sizzled as the venom touched it. I just kept running. I'd have to be mindful of the turns I took from now on.

Five more minutes of running and I hit a door. I went through it, not bothering to think if it might be locked or what may be on the other side. I slammed the door shut behind me and I heard the spider hit on the other side. _Good thing spiders don't have thumbs_.

When I turned around to see where I was, the first thing I saw was Owen standing in the center of the room, balancing on a very small pole. He had his fingers up to his lip, signalling me to be quiet. I gave him a questioning look. He pointed downwards. In the pit around the pole he was standing on were sleeping Weevils. They were snoring and groaning softly. The pit wasn't very deep, maybe about six feet. If the pole was larger, I could've just jumped over and brought us back,

I turned on my thermal vision. What I saw confused me. Some of the Weevils had heat signatures while the others didn't. The ones without must just be manifestations of the nightmare box, but what about the others?

I stood on the edge of the pit and looked for a path where I could cross to Owen. All I had to do was get to him, then he could get on my back and I could jump us out of there. I looked past Owen to the other side of the room, there was a door.

When Owen saw what I was planning he started shaking his head and signalling me not to. He almost lost his balance and promptly stopped. I jumped as quietly as I could into the pit, the smell was overwhelming. I froze for a few seconds as some of the Weevils turned in their sleep. I tip toed the best I could across the Weevils, stopping a few times to let them settle. One time when I stopped, a Weevils latched its arm around my leg, pulling it close it, like a human might do to a teddy bear. It took a few minutes to wiggle my leg back out.

When I finally reached Owen, I went around to the opposite side of the pole. I signalled him to jump on my back. He gave me a disbelieving look, but I just rolled my eyes. He slid down the pole like a fireman's pole and climbed onto my back. He was heavy, very heavy. I really hoped I could jump with the both of us. I bent my knees a few times, testing his weight. Maybe it would be better for us both to pick a path to the other side and climb up the wall. A few stirring Weevils convinced me otherwise.

I jumped, Owen on my back. It was definitely a lot harder with another person on my back. I hit the wall, body half in the pit, half on the floor above. Owen scrambled off my back and helped me the rest of the way up. We went through the door on the other side, which led to another set of hallways.

"Do me a favor and don't tell anyone you gave me a piggy back ride," Owen pointed and threatened me. My face cracked into a smile.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"I'm serious," he said as we started jogging. "Now where are the others and do you have any idea of where you're going?"

"Not a clue," I said, echoing mine and Jack's earlier conversation. "I've got Toshiko on the earpiece though, she said she needs me to help bring this thing down. This place is a maze, I only found you cause I've been using that old right hand on the wall trick."

"Oh, the one where if you follow the right wall you'll eventually hit the exit? That could take forever."

"Got a better plan?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh look at you Miss first day on the job, coming up with plans and saving the other team members. Helluva lot better than Gwen's first day, she released a sex alien into Cardiff." I would've asked, but my spider friend was back. Apparently it knew a way around. We stopped and Owen pulled a gun out of his belt.

"Friend of yours?" He asked as he shot it. I was expecting an explosion of green slime, but instead there were now millions of tiny spiders running towards us.

"Oh fan-fucking-tastic Owen!" I screamed, trying to stomp on as many spiders as I could. They were running up our legs. This was horrible. I could practically feel them crawling on my soul. I switched on my thermal vision for a second, all tiny pricks of red light.

"How was I supposed to know that was going to happen!" I was dancing in circles now, trying to brush them off. My heart was racing. This may not have been a life threatening situation, but it was scary enough for me. I hated spiders as much as I hated needles. _No, definitely don't think about that_.

I started running from where the spider swarm was, "Come on!" I yelled at Owen who was still trying to get as many spiders off himself as well.

"I'm going to be finding spiders on me for weeks now," he shivered.

"Toshiko, I've got Owen!" I said into my earpiece.

"Great! Where's Jack?" Owen heard the same thing over his ear piece and looked at me for an answer.

"He told me to run ahead again. We were being chased by this circus, carnival leader monster and Jack was the one with the gun. I think that monster might have something to do with all of this. Jack and I saw him before..." I trailed off.

"And you just left him there?" Owen yelled at me.

"What was I supposed to do? I don't have a weapon. The best thing I can do to help right now is get to Toshiko and help her stop this thing!" Owen was silent at that. I knew if me or any of the other members of Torchwood were in trouble, he wouldn't abandon them like I did with Jack. _It was the only way you could help._ "Toshiko, how are we location wise?" I asked.

"You're almost directly south of us now. The next time you can start going north, do so."

Owen and I started took the next hallway north, then started following the right hand rule again. He kept his gun drawn. "Do you know where Gwen is?" he asked.

"The ring leader showed us a hologram and she was on it," I didn't elaborate any further. I wanted to run ahead, get to Toshiko as fast as I could so this nightmare would be over. I could only run on adrenaline for so long.

The next hallway we turned down didn't have any turn offs coming off it. There was simply a door at the end. Owen and I stopped. "Think that's where she is?" I asked.

"She's got to be. All it needs is a neon sign saying enter here."

"It's like they're leading us to this though. Before I got to your room, I felt like I was running around those hallways for hours. Why lead us here to quickly?"

"Because this hallway is obviously a trap." He cocked his gun, ready to shoot. We walked slowly towards the door, ready for floors falling out or darts shooting out of the walls. I kept an eye behind us again while Owen faced forward. We had been creeping forward for about a minute when Owen said my name. I turned around expecting the door to be in front of my face. Instead we were only half way down the hallway. How could that be? We should've been so much farther than that.

"Noticed it too?" he asked.

"I'd ask what's going on, but I'm pretty sure I already know the answer."

"Shh-" he said. I stopped and listened. I heard what he had stopped me for. There was a roaring sound. _What? That sounds like the ocean_. And there was the scent as well. Brine. I looked behind us again. A stream of water was starting to run down the side of the hallway.

"Owen, I think we better get to that door." We started running towards the door, still making no progress. The stream was widening now, it was starting to reach our feet. "Clear your mind Owen! This thing feeds on fear, the more afraid you are, the worse it'll get!"

"You think I don't know that?" He rebuttled.

"Toshiko, I think you had better open that door to your room. And get ready to close it again!" I was shouting over the ear piece now. The roaring was ridiculously loud now.

"What's that noise?" Toshiko asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say the ocean." I looked behind us again, suddenly a rush of white water was coming towards us. As I looked ahead of us, Ianto was opening the door. We were finally able to make progress towards the door.

By the time we were inside, the water pressure was so great, Ianto and Owen were struggling to push the door shut. I took a few steps back, the water was rushing through the part of the door that was open. "We could use some help!" Owen yelled, getting drenched.

"Get out of the way!" I took more steps back so I could get a running start. Owen realized what I was doing just as I started running back towards them. Ianto held the door shut as much as he could, the salt water ruining is nice three-piece. I leapt on the door, feet first, the force of me jumping into it with my alien device causing the door to effectively slam shut.

I fell on my back in a puddle of water. _Well hopefully that crushed any spiders hiding back there_. Ianto and Owen wrenched me up, arms under my armpits.

"Well I guess that's one way to do it." Ianto remarked, "You have a spider in your hair."

_Spoke to soon I guess._ I ran my fingers though my hair and pulled out two of the eight legged beasts. "Alright Toshiko, now that we're done running the gauntlet, what have you got for me?"

"I need you to take this scanner, plant it up there, and the program I've put on it." I looked to where she was pointing. Where the water tower used to be was now the most enormous tree I've ever seen. It was so tall I couldn't see the top of it. It was as wide as a house. As I looked closer, the trunk seemed to be made of slightly moving, darkly colored vines. _No, no, no_- Toshiko was still talking, probably explaining what the thing did, but I wasn't paying attention. These were the same vines that held me to the operating table. They were covering the trees. I could feel myself shaking. _This isn't the same Lucy. It's just pulling things out of my head_. I was too afraid to check if the tree was real. It couldn't be right? That's where the water tower should be. It was just the water tower.

Toshiko handed me her device. I took a deep breath and looked at everyone. _Don't think about it Lucy_. I reminded myself again. I forced myself to smile at them. "Do you make all your new recruits run this obstacle course?" I asked.

"Only the ones we don't like," Owen responded.

I scowled at him. "Toshiko, I know my physical abilities are enhanced, but I don't think I can jump that high."

"I know, but you'll be able to get to the top a lot faster than any of us can. We don't have any safety equipment, so be careful. I've had this theory about you that I'd rather not test. I think when you fall, you won't take any damage so far as the height you've fallen from doesn't exceed the maximum height you can jump. Like I said, I'd rather not test that, so keep it in mind."

I walked up to the base of the tree, scanner now tucked in the belly pocket of my hoodie. The height was daunting. _Well, here goes nothing._ I bent my knees and jumped up as high as I could and latched onto some small protruding branches, thankful they didn't break under my weight. Looking down, I'd say I made it about half way up the trunk. Half way more up, the branched thickened, I couldn't see past them. i started climbing.

I had to take frequent breaks. I might have superhuman physical abilities, but looking down, the height was literally breath taking. As I reached the branched, I looked back down and saw that Jack and Gwen were joining the group. A voice came over my ear piece. It was Jack,

"How's the view up there?" I smiled. "Listen, I was able to get away from the ring leader, but I don't know where he went. I'd bet my vortex manipulator he's going to be waiting at the top for you, so be careful." He emphasised the last two words. "As soon as you get up there, start that program and you shouldn't even have to worry about him, but that's easier said than done. Good luck."

Going up through the branches was easy, I could use my jumping ability again. The height I had to climb up for the branches wasn't nearly as much as the height of the trunk. As I reached what I assumed was the apex, I saw a cluster of flat, intertwined branches. It looked like they formed a platform. _Perfect._

I jumped towards it and grabbed onto it. As I was hoisting myself ontop of the platform, one of my sweaty palms slipped so I was hanging on by one hand. Another hand suddenly appeared from the top of the platform, grabbing my wrist and hoisting me onto the platform.

It was the Doctor, his blue box behind him.

"Ah good timing Lucy," he smiled. "I was getting strange readings from this area and decided to check it out."

It was a good impression, but it wouldn't fool me. Not after everything that happened today. I flicked on my thermal vision just to make sure. Off-orange, just as I suspected.

He must've seen my eyes go red. The Doctor morphed into something that had been haunting my nightmares recently. It was a Lorian. It looked exactly like the one that got me here in the first place.

"Oh, I don't think so sweetheart." I was fed up with this. I had spiders in my hair, holes in my hoodie and my entire backside was crusty with dried sea water. I pulled out the scanner from my pocket, the fake Lorian stared and then started charging at me, he knew what was coming.

I pressed the button Toshiko had shown me. A blinding flash of light appeared and a tornado of wind with me at the eye whipped around. I crouched down out of fear of being accidentally pushed off the platform.

When I opened my eyes a few seconds later, the light hadn't disappeared. The device wasn't the source of it though, it was the sun. I looked around. I was on top of the water tower, the nightmare gone. There was no tension in the air, it was truly gone. Toshiko really was a genius.

I fell back onto my butt, sitting on top of the water tower, taking in the sun that I hadn't seen in so long, exhaustion catching up with me.

Jack's voice came over my earpiece again. "congratulations," I could practically hear him smiling, "you saved us, now where are you?"

"On top of the water tower, I think I'm going to need some help getting down." I grinned, not being able to help myself. I was exhausted, battered and bruised, but what a rush it was. The sense of accomplishment I felt was overwhelming. I had a feeling I would love working for Torchwood...


End file.
